Muthu, these gimmicks are great, but we need something now! Could we
settle on something and then later implement opentype fonts, which would
take care of our standard and any others that may come along? Those who
don't like grantha can then have a granthaless font that automatically
converts the j's to c's, etc. It would also solve the problem of the Tamil
numerals -- you could either have them or not, depending on your taste.
AND if someone decided to write Tamil in Telugu script (which used to be
common among the Aiyengars), that would be OK too (I doubt many people
would need that, however).
Now here's another thought. For years I've been irked that Devanagari has
taken over Sanskrit. The fact is, the much-maligned grantha alphabet is
actually better for writing Sanskrit than Devanagari. It's easier to read,
and is more elegant. It would be very neat if we had a Opentype Sanskrit
alphabet -- devanagari for the North Indians, grantha for those of use who
would like a nicer Sanskrit alphabet (and who are irked that the North
Indians imperialistically took away the alphabet used by the Tamils to
write Sanskrit). George