Tribal cool on SMS - Smartphone app for Ol Chiki

Tribal cool on SMS
- Smartphone app for Ol Chiki

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MLA Raghubar Das (second from right) launches the app with Kunar Hembram (right) in Jamshedpur on Friday. Picture by Bhola Prasad Henda ho, am dom Santhal kana? Hello, are you a Santhal? If so, there’s great news for you. Very soon, you can use your own language to SMS friends and relatives on your Smartphone. Yes, Ol Chiki, the Santhal script, has now been converted as a downloadable app by a Jhargram-based civil engineer Kunar Hembram (50). Hembram, a civil engineer and self-employed professional, came to Jamshedpur to launch his labour of love — it took him “a couple of years” to develop the app named Santhali Mobile Software — on Friday. Jamshedpur (East) MLA Raghubar Das was the chief guest during the launch. Hembram, an unusual techie, has been associated with Santhali literary outfits and developed digital versions of the tribal language. Way back in 2001, when the Internet was in its infancy in India, he had developed a script conversion software to translate English, Hindi and Bengali to Ol Chiki and vice-versa. Since 2008, techies have developed the Ol Chiki unicode — the software to support the script’s characters digitally — and patented them. But an authoritative, standardised version of a Santhali unicode is awaited. Hembram has taken his version and made it compatible for cellphones, equipping the software with automatic spell-check. “Once I put it up on the Internet, users can download the app and install it in Smartphones for messaging,” Hembram said. Right now, one has to get the app from Hembram personally via Bluetooth. On teething troubles, Hembram added: “Ol Chiki also needs a standard key code. In English, alphabets stay in the same position in desktops, laptops and Smartphones, thanks to Qwerty”. While Hembram pushes the case to standardise the digital use of Ol Chiki, he is also ushering in a unique revolution. Santhali youngsters can finally use their script — not Roman alphabets — to SMS something as basic as “hi, how are you? (chele cheg leka menama?)” or “catch you later (arhon lang natama)”. Cool. (courtesy - http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130525/jsp/jharkhand/story_16933214.jsp#.UaS7JtKBklh )