Writing Tamil with English – A Frustrating Scene: Neechalkaran Raja & A. Pari’s Post

Last week, I came across a post shared by Neechalkaran Raja on my Facebook feed. He had expressed his concern about people using English letters to write the Tamil script. As I read through his post, it led me to another by A. Pari, who had shared similar concerns. This is a clear reflection of the problem we face today.

Pari and Neechalkaran Raja referred to a popular Vijay TV show – Super Singer, where the contestants were asked to write a letter in Tamil to their mothers. Out of 10 participants, 8 wrote their letters in English — not the content, but the script. Though the message was in Tamil, the Tamil script itself was not used.

According to Pari, he blames the mobile phone for this trend. But the problem runs much deeper — it starts right from our education system. We often talk about preserving Tamil, but we fail to practice it in our daily lives. Unfortunately, this gap between words and action continues to grow.

This frustrating trend isn’t limited to Pari’s post. You can see it all over the internet — on YouTube, billboards, and across Chennai. Thankfully, it hasn’t yet spread deeply into the rural parts of Tamil Nadu (at least, that’s what I believe). But if we don’t act now, it’s only a matter of time before it does. This is not just a small cultural shift — it’s a serious concern for the Tamil language and Tamil Nadu as a whole.

I’ve spoken about this issue multiple times before and made videos on my YouTube channel as well. We must take responsibility for the mess we find ourselves in. This is also why we built the Kothai Tamil Keyboard —. (By the way, this is not a marketing post for the Kothai Keyboard)

The Future of Indian Languages

I have also made videos on this on my youtube channel.

More of us need to be vocal and change this disturbing trend.

Thanks, Neechalkaran Raja and Pari for your concern.