BOOK · TAMIL · 2023
Nutpam (நுட்பம்)
Phones and computers, explained in plain Tamil
Nearly everyone has a phone, and most people get stuck with it at some point. Nutpam is a Tamil book of 52 short, practical chapters on using phones and computers well: setting them up, keeping your data and family safe, and solving everyday problems without running to a shop or an expert.
Venkatarangan Thirumalai · Madras Paper and Zero Degree Publishing · December 2023 · Kindle edition February 2025 · In Tamil
Why this book sits next to my business work
I have spent more than thirty years building software and advising businesses. So why write a year of weekly columns, in Tamil, about Wi-Fi routers and WhatsApp?
Because the hardest part of any technology is rarely the technology itself. It is explaining it clearly enough that people can use it. That is also what business leaders need from me about AI: plain language, real examples, and something they can act on next week.
Nutpam was my discipline in doing that. My editor’s brief was simple: every column had to make sense to anyone with a phone, in 500 to 800 words, with no more technical explanation than needed. I added one rule of my own. After reading a chapter, you should be able to do something on your phone straight away.
“After reading a chapter, you should be able to do something on your phone straight away.”
Fifty-two chapters, one column a week
The chapters began as a weekly column in the Tamil web magazine Madras Paper. For the book, each one was revised to reflect the apps and devices of December 2023.
52
chapters
1 year
of weekly columns in Madras Paper
250+
pages
Buying, setting up and letting go
Choosing a phone, the first things to do after buying one, and what to do before you hand an old one on
Your memories and data
Backing up photos, chats and family archives so they are never lost
Scams, fakes and safety
Protecting yourself and your family, including children with phones
Staying connected
Bluetooth, SIM cards, Wi-Fi and home routers
Working smarter
Search, Gmail, notes, spreadsheets, documents, video calls, presentations
Tamil on your devices
Using Tamil comfortably on Windows and phones
AI and what comes next
ChatGPT-style tools, AI everywhere, the metaverse
For small businesses
Simple digital tools a small trader can use
Tamil first, and never forced
I wanted the columns to be Tamil first. That did not mean avoiding English words people already use, but where a good Tamil word existed, I used it. The Government of Tamil Nadu’s Sorkuvai word bank helped me find many of them. In the Kindle edition I went back and made the technical terms consistent across chapters.
This comes from more than twenty-five years of work on Tamil computing, from INFITT and Tamil Unicode to the Tamil Virtual Academy. → About
From the forewords
“Venkat writes the kind of Tamil that makes hard ideas easy to follow — the coinages he found for difficult technical terms are a real achievement. After reading a chapter, most readers can fix the problem themselves, without calling anyone.”
Pa. Raghavan
Editor, Madras Paper
“Of all the essay collections I have read, Nutpam stands apart for its humour and its plain simplicity. The chapter on how to search Google alone showed me how much I still had to learn.”
Azhagiya Pandian
Director, National Library Board, Singapore
Along the way
Presenting Nutpam to Mr Udayachandran IAS, 1 March 2024
With Mr Arul Natarajan, Tamil Development Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, 16 January 2024
With Mr Azhagiya Pandian, 25 January 2024
With Mr Arun Mahizhnan, Singapore, 8 February 2024
With Mr Siva Pillai, London, 14 January 2024
With Mr Suresh Sambandam, Founder and CEO of Kissflow, Chennai, February 2024
Who it is for
- Anyone who reads Tamil and uses a phone: parents, grandparents, small traders, students.
- Families: the chapters on backups, scams and children’s phones are worth reading together.
Get the book
| Paperback (Amazon India) | Buy on Amazon → |
| Kindle | Buy on Kindle → |
| Publisher | Zero Degree Publishing → |
The book is in Tamil.
More in this vein
- Seyaligalin Kathai, my second Tamil book, on the stories behind 52 apps → Seyaligalin Kathai
- Sapien Geno, a YouTube channel explaining AI in plain Tamil, which I’m part of → youtube.com/@sapiengeno