There are millions of people of Indian origin who have settled in the West and in other places abroad.The original settlers could carry their cultural and linguistic baggage comfortably and maintain their identity because they did not lose touch with their root.The problem arose only for the second and later generations.In course of time they began to drift away from their cultural and linguistic moorings.At present they are more in sync with the local population. True, they observe periodically the cultural customs which their parent generation passed on; but language seems to be problem.They might have a smattering of knowledge of their mother tongue but their link with it is loosening .There are lots of kids who do not have any link with the language of their origin.
There are attempts to correct the problem and bring back this generation into the fold but the problems are varied. Being dispersed over a wide geographical area teachers cannot be bought from India.Text books cannot be utilized ; who would teach the correct articulations of the sounds?If there is medium through which knowledge could be imparted it would help to a great extent by printing text books which the learners could use as a "self-help" measure. Even the computer could be used for the purpose.
It was towards this end that the new Roman font "Indian-in-Roman"was devised.The 'pravasi"could easily follow the lessons which are given in Roman font with which they are familiar. He need not toil for months to master yhe unfamiliar 'original' script which consist of more than a hundred characters;the Roman font has only sixty characters (all in Roman letters-with and without diacritical marks).Learning/teaching would be more comfortable.The added advantage is that he could learn any other language because he does not have struggle font each time. The pc/laptop would be handy because the new font is computer friendly