A girl student in school uniform walks on to the stage and folds her hands to greet the chief guest Rahul Gandhi, who promptly extends his hand and shakes hers. At this point, Safa Febin, a Class 12 student of the Government GHSS Karuvarakkund in Malappuram, breaks into a sweet giggle.
Rahul Gandhi, the current Wayanad MP, was visiting the school on Thursday, 5 December, to inaugurate a new building. He was about to begin his speech and the other Congress leaders who were with him were asking who would translate the speech. It was then that Rahul asked the audience if any student would help translate his speech into Malayalam.
And it was Safa, sitting among the audience with her parents, who confidently went up on stage.
However, what was even astonishing was that Safa did the job as if she was an experienced translator!
Safa translated his speech into Malayalam for the audience with clarity and spoke in a crystal clear voice. While making the language attractive and appealing, Safa also ensured that the essence of the leader’s speech was not lost and that the translation was factually correct.
It was clear that the young student has a firm grasp of both languages – English and Malayalam.
The Congress MP’s speech focused on the best way to imbibe science and develop a scientific temper.
Many times during the speech there was applause from the audience, which is quite rare when a political speech is getting translated. Though Safa won praises for her translation, one wishes that the MP from Kerala learns that the language of the state is Malayalam and not Malayali as he called it.
The Karuvarakkund government school falls under the Wayanad constituency.
On the stage, AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal and Congress leader AP Anilkumar are seen full of appreciative smiles while Safa translates the speech.
Earlier this year Jyothi Vijayakumar, a Congress activist, had attracted widespread praise for translating the then Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s speech into Malayalam during the Lok Sabha election campaign in Kerala. Her piercing voice and ‘going out of the way’ from the hitherto boring word-to-word translation had won her many fans.
Now yet another female voice, that too of a very young girl, has won hearts for her clear and crisp translation.
Rahul Gandhi also mentioned the death of Shehla, the Wayanad student who recently died of snake bite in her school, saying that we know that the condition of schools in Kerala is the best in the country but is still not good enough.
The audience reacted overwhelmingly while the speech ended.
And after he concluded, Rahul Gandhi thanked Safa for a job well done.
(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
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