Dear Sri Narayanee ji,
I respect your sentiments to the Tamil Language. However we have to be practical when it comes to reality.
For your information, I studied in the same school where our present Tamilnadu CM, Kaignar Karunanidhi also studied. We may differ with Sri Karunanidhi on several issues but I am sure all of us will respect his knowledge of Tamil.
At the college level also I was fortunate to study under great Tamil scholars. Sri Sathyaseelan, one of the present well known Tamil Scholar, is my Guru. The way he use to teach Great Poet Nakkeerar's `Nedunalvaadai' is still in my ears. He use to bring Sanga Period Madurai in front of our eyes.
As told earlier in these columns, I still collect lot of Tamil Literature books and devoting my time in learning from the treasures of our mother language.
However when it comes to interacting with people particularly at National and Global level, there is no other option except in communicating in English which is a universal language.
Most of the participants here have migrated outside Tamilnadu long back. They still love our mother tongue and our community which is a great asset for all of us. They come to our website to know more about our community, language, current economic conditions, cultural preservation etc.
Due to long break from Tamilnadu and Tamil Language, they are unable to talk as fluently as some of us can. They cannot read and write Tamil Language. If we have to carry them along with us, we have to accept English also. Infact they cannot read and understand, whatever you have written in Tamil.
During my student days, I also participated in `anti Hindi' agitations. But looking back, I feel I was wrong at that time. Children of those who provoked anti Hindi agitation are speaking Hindi very well today. But our community people are being discriminated within our state through reservation issue. We are unable to migrate to North India due to lack of Hindi Language. If we treat English also as foreign language and refuse to learn, we are shutting the doors for our younger generation still studying in Tamilnadu.
I earnestly feel that without compromising our affection to our mother tongue, we can learn and communicate in as many other languages as possible.
Sri KRS ji, one of our Senior Moderator has already expressed his views in the same columns yesterday and let us respect his views. Let us not debate on this subject any more.
எண்ணாயிரம் ஆண்டு யோகம் இருப்பினும் கண்ணார் அமுதனை கண்டறிவாரில்லை உள் நாடி ஒளி பெற உள்ளே நோக்கினார் கண்ணாடி போல கலந்து நின்றானே