Playing with words: Thoodhu board game brings Tamil back into everyday life

As everyday use of Tamil declines, Kothai is reimagining language learning through play. Its a board game, Thoodhu brings families together, turning Tamil into a shared living experience

At a time when native language learning is increasingly pushed to the margins, Kothai, a Tamil language initiative, is working to rebuild everyday engagement with Tamil through practical tools. The team focuses on simplifying language learning and creating spaces where people can use, learn, and bond over Tamil. Their first physical product, Thoodhu, is a board game designed to approach language learning as a shared activity rather than a structured lesson.

Developed through extensive experimentation and play-testing, Thoodhu is intended as a family game that brings generations together. It is a team-based game suitable for 6 to 12 players. Players split into two teams, Pura and Parundhu, and communicate secret words by giving clever, related clues. With easy and hard modes, it accommodates varying fluency levels. Set against a Chola-period narrative, the game requires players to guess and write related Tamil words that the opposing team cannot intercept. By rewarding creative vocabulary and strategic thinking, Thoodhu transforms Tamil engagement from a formal classroom task into a social, multi-generational activity.

Vision behind the game

For Srija Santhanam, senior manager of community development, the project began as a response to a growing linguistic gap. “Kothai started as an experiment to understand how native languages, especially Tamil, can be kept alive and relevant,” she explains. “We noticed that across generations, the connection with the mother tongue is weakening. Earlier generations could read and write comfortably, but many children today struggle even with basic literacy.”

The goal was to move away from the stress of academic settings. By creating tools in both physical and digital forms, the team aimed to make Tamil a natural part of everyday life. This shift from studying to interacting is what led to the idea of a board game.