Some time back, one Anonymous wrote a strange letter. While commending Prof P Ramasamy for his thought-provoking articles in malaysiakini , he or she put forward three suggestions that were diametrically opposed to Prof Rama's views: Discard Tamil; ban Tamil movies, particularly those in which Rajnikanth appears; and shut down all Tamil schools ([#1] Indians must make radical changes [/#], March 29).

I am not even sure if Anonymous is actually a real person - his or her views, or suggestions, were just ludicrous!

Anyway, yesterday, there appeared another letter ([#1] Language with 'richest' literary tradition [/#], April 3) that virtually made Tamil otherworldly. The writer even said that Tamil gives some instinctive feel for mathematics.

That was news to me, for I've never heard of any such thing before. And I am sure all those Tamil school students who are now struggling to pass their maths would be equally surprised, as well.

Fallacy one: Tamil is structured in a mathematical form. No. There is a certain structure, yes; but calling it mathematical is simply an overstatement. The functioning body of Tamil sounds (217 of them) is created by joining life sounds (there are 12) with the 'meat' (18 sounds here). All these sounds - along with an extra - make up the 247 letters of Tamil. Is that very mathematical? Nothing more than rudimentary.

Fallacy two: Tamil people are somehow good in mathematics and computer programming. Once, long ago, there lived an undisputed math genius, Ramanujan, who was a Tamil; there was also C V Raman, another Tamil; and finally, the late Chandrasekaran. But, apart from them there have not been many Tamil mathematicians. And further, the much talked-about computer programmers generally don't know much Tamil. Most of them come from upper-middle class background, where they speak English at home. The correlation between Tamil and math or programming, as far as I know, is zero.

However, I do agree with the author that Tamil is truly mellifluous. (One poet has even called Tamil sweetness.) But sadly, it remains a difficult language to master. Therefore, I fear it is cursed to remain accessible only to the elite few who have the intellect and the leisure to plumb Tamil's depth.

In any case, let's not to be proud of Tamil for all the wrong reasons. It only hinders progress. Tamil has some of the best poems I have read or heard. But what it lacks are readers and listeners. In my opinion, Tamil people could do a lot more service to their language if they would only start learning it, instead of wasting their time making myths about its mathematical properties and whatnot.