The Language Called Tamil

Tamil is a language spoken by roughly about 80 million around the globe. The latest grammar book of Tamil dates back to 1st Century BC. You can imagine how long the language would have existed before coming up with such a detailed grammar book.

I was thinking of the beauty of this language and the deeper psychological aspects contained in the words of this old yet ever young language. One such word that I kept thinking in the past one year or so was "வலி". It is pronounced as "Vali"- Va is like Vu in Vulnerable and li is like Li in Link. The word has several meanings - the most popular / used meanings are pain and strength.

Most of us want strong life. We also want pain-free life. It is interesting to see that if you want to be strong you need to know how to handle pain effectively. In any field if need to be strong, we don't have a choice but to spend effort and withstand pain. Not many languages have the same word representing the process and result! The word வலி reminds this every time you use the word! Wow!

I am fortunate that I can read, write and speak this language. I wish I can leverage all that the language has to offer!