Sivaramakrishnan? Good grief. Please don't tell me that of all the boards, in all the world, we three are Dravidians wound up here?
My parents' tongue is Malayalam. And I've seen a website that theorises that 'us Nairs' are not indigenous to Kerala, but some form of immigrant bunch from - you guessed it - North-West India, arrived a few hundred years ago and took possession of all the plush jobs/estates and have lorded it over the deserving locals ever since. Whilst adopting their language, of course.
As pure folk-lore, I was always told that Malayalam was the most sanskritised of the South Indian languages. The family seemed to take pride in that! What I think is reasonably well-established is that Malayalam is the youngest of the big four, being only about 1500 years old.
And yes, I reject entirely Mumbai - given that I lived in the city for 22 years, I believe I have the right to call it what I want. And I can just never remember Chennai for Madras.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
