When Parliament is in session, nearly 100 people file into soundproof booths overlooking the chamber of the House. These people, ranging from young graduates to retired government employees, have quite the mandate: relaying the proceedings of both Houses into 23 different languages, spanning most of India’s official languages, as well as Sanskrit.
Simultaneous interpretation is an exacting art — it requires listening to a speaker and translating their words in real time into another language. The process is so mentally taxing that interpreters swap spots every 30 minutes. The word order in most sentences is different in English from most Indian languages, forcing interpreters to rattle off sentences quickly, skip some phrases, and do it all while listening for the next sentence.