thanks for getting back with this again, .....
the decoding is being done in the browser. After i read the value using getNodeValue, (at the moment i am simply trying to print it on the browser using out.println. basically it is a jsp. so i am running it throught a browser. the html file generated has funny characters. if you want i can send you the xml file i am reading with the jsp, if that is not too much of a bother.
thanks
poorav