HIS cellphone beeps as Balusaheb is finishing the last round of ploughing his fields. It’s an SMS from his neighbour — Tumhi ghetlela naveen fertiliser aala aahe (Your new fertilisers have arrived). A simple enough message — except that it’s in the Devanagari script.
Welcome to a scenario that chairman of Dishnet Vijay Bhatkar has termed ‘‘an enduring endeavour to facilitate communication in Indian languages’’ — thanks to new software that is about to be introduced on cellphones.
The India International Multiversity (IIMv) and Pune-based Penfosys Pvt Ltd have now come up with a specific keypad layout for Indian scripts based on ancient Sanskrit grammar. So say goodbye to the days of fumbling with English language keys on your mobile to send unwieldy SMSs in Marathi or other Indian languages.
To be launched on Gudi Padwa next year, this software is all set to revolutionise the messaging system all over the country. ‘‘The mobile revolution has reached the rural areas, and as a result, the need to Indianise this function of the mobile was felt,’’ says Rahul Shingavi, public relations officer at Dishnet DSL, which has also applied for a patent to this new technology.
According to Vivekanand Pani, chief architect of this design: ‘‘The basic philosophy behind the keypad design is to have a single key for two similar sounding alphabets. We have worked on the design in such a way that a person who wants to type k or kh needs to press just one key. As a result, we have managed to fit 57 alphabets in just nine keys.’’
He adds that the scripts are quite complex. ‘‘We have managed to add the smart messaging system to this software too, with a T9 system in place that guesses the word you want to type and types it on its own,’’ explains Pani.