English Malayalam online dictionary, finally!

Jisha Surya
First Published : 19 Jun 2010

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Being a PhD student, Kailash Nadh did not have enough time to realise his dream project - a portal on citizen journalism. But what he finally managed has started making ripples among Malayali netizens. The 23-year-old has single-handedly created olam.in, an English-Malayalam online dictionary.
Kailash is among the umpteen net users who have for long felt the need for an online English-Malayalam dictionary. But he managed to create it using all available sources known to him, including the Wikipedia dictionary. Kailash has managed to add more than 1 lakh words so far.
“It was the lack of good Malayalam resources that motivated me to do so. The Swathanthra Malayalam Computing (SMC) project too has inspired me,” said Kailash in an email interview.
It was his keen interest both in the language and Information Technology that made the site so attractive. The navigation tools are easy to use.
The site also invites users’ participation in contributing words and the response has overwhelmed Kailash.
“A dozen new words are getting added everyday. The submissions are moderated to prevent redundant and erroneous data,” he said. Kailash left his hometown Kozhikode in 2005 to pursue BSc in Computer Science and PhD - both from the Middlesex University, London. From there, he started contributing to the Malayalam computing movement.
“Youths are spending considerable time on web, which is dominated by English. This is not a bad thing and it has made the web truly global.
But the fact that other languages are overshadowed is dismaying. This is why efforts such as SMC deserve great appreciation,” Kailash said.
Kailash is now working on adding a Malayalam-Malayalam dictionary to this site. “KJ Joseph aka Datuk, who is based in Malaysia, digitised a large, old Malayalam dictionary and made it available to the public a few years ago. I am in the process of turning this large data-set into a searchable form which would power the Malayalam-Malayalam dictionary,” he said.
A citizen journalism portal is also in the pipeline. “My plan is to have a centralised system solely for Malayalam - an arena for people to submit their literary works, including poetry, articles and random musings. Journalism would be a part of it. As per the plans, it will not have mainstream news, but opinions, editorials and discussions on current affairs,” he said.
Kailash has been helping music talents in south India through his company ‘Vettila Music’.
“The company utilises the latest technologies in media distribution and taps the power of social media to promote talents. With ‘Vettila Music’, we are trying to bring about innovation in our music industry,” he said.