About us
We are Lavanja and Ramyah – sisters, born and raised in Germany, with Tamil roots. Our language and culture have always been part of our lives. With solliyal we want to pass them on, with love, to the next generation.
Our childhood had two languages. Outside, at school and with friends, we spoke German. But the moment the front door closed behind us, there was Tamil: in the conversations around the dinner table, in the stories of our elders, in the songs at every family celebration. Almost everyone around us spoke our mother tongue – learning and living Tamil came naturally to us.
We both spent twelve years at Tamil school and graduated – letter by letter, poem by poem. Later we stood in front of the class ourselves, as teachers. There we saw what really matters: children love learning Tamil when it is playful and fun. To this day the language is a firm part of our everyday lives.
What came naturally to us no longer does
Then came our daughter – and with her the wish to pass Tamil on to her, actively. We felt first-hand how hard that is. The second generation grows up differently from us: at nursery, with friends, often even in families with a Tamil background, people speak German. The language is still there – but it is growing quieter, because everyday life hardly calls for it any more.
As a Tamil community abroad, that leaves us with a real hurdle: how do we carry our mother tongue into the next generation? Not as a duty children work through, but as something they love to pick up – and don’t want to put down again.
And that is where we noticed what was missing: playful, high-quality materials. Colourful, sturdy Tamil children’s books that make children curious – and that are hard to find in Germany. That is how solliyal was born.
Our contribution: solliyal
We believe language is the key to culture – and that children learn to love a language when they get to laugh, play and wonder in it. So we choose every book with care: books that invite children to join in and show that Tamil is alive, not just an old language you have to learn.
In April 2025 we introduced our first books on Instagram – and felt how many families were looking for exactly this. Together with publishers of Tamil children’s books we now make these books available right here in Germany.