This IIT-Bombay alumnus was one of the backbenchers in his class. However, after working for three years with a US-based credit card giant, he finally decided to follow his heart and started Shabdanagri, a unique Hindi-based translation website. “The website offers the ability to create rich content in Hindi which can be in the form of articles or question-answers. We are also working on automatic translations to facilitate conversion of online literature base of English into Hindi. Moreover, one doesn’t need to learn Hindi typing to write on the website! You type the Hindi word in English and it would translate after a press of space bar into Hindi,” says Amitesh Mishra of Shabdanagri. Originally from Kanpur, the website which was co-founded by Nikhil Tiwari and Amaresh Chandra Misra is picking up steam. “Given the fact that there are over 800 million Hindi speakers in India and there are hardly any online platforms that offers user-generated content in Hindi, we felt that there is a huge gap in supply and demand,” he adds.
Looking back, he says, “My parents were a bit apprehensive at first but soon they realised that I am not going to change my mind. They have been quite supportive since then. I still remember the early days when we were operating from one of the rooms in my paternal house. My dad even constructed a new floor for us.”
With some of the prominent profiles including those of writers, poets and Hindi news reports, this web portal has a vast reach. Amitesh recalls, “One of the difficulties we are facing is that people still consider internet an English-only thing. We have to create our market ourselves,” he adds.
Resolution
Our new year resolution is to reach over 1million users and establish ourselves as the most reliable brand in this space by the end of this year.
Wish List
1. Native Mobile Applications
2. Marketplace for vernacular books on Shabdanagari
3. Providing services in other Indian languages