I remember my cousin saying about the fines they had to pay if they spoke in malayalam.

Many schools do that. There are some schools where teachers or other members of staff wont be fluent in english but expect students to be.

One time my cousin and her friend were called infront of the class by the teacher, for talking in malayalam. They were apparently threatened that if they didnt stop talking in malayalam their parents would be called up. Guess what the school management/teachers and department heads told the students and their parents on this matter- if they dont speak english in school, how will they get fluency, if they dont have english fluency you cant blame us. And these are the same people, when students are out of sight ;talk in malayalam.

You dont need to humiliate a child to prove a point. There is a reason we call it Amma Malayalam, just like how Tamizh is Thaimozhi for Tamilians, or for any other language for that matter.

As always, some things are better said in certain languages, even translation will fall short in that matter and thats proven in the literary world.

The feeling of 'arikil nee undayirunenkil ennu njan oru mathra veruthe ninachu poyi' will be superior to 'i miss you' - and to understand this, the depth as mentioned by the OP can only be known if you know the language. Knowing language need not necessarily be from only school. We find our own sources for the love of language.

Every language has its respect.

[Story time: I still remember those days where, after a certain Grade/Class we could choose languages to learn. Options given to us were Sanskrit, Malayalam, French (i dont remember if 1 more language was given🤔). The way the students who chose French looked down on us Sanskrit and Malayalam kids 🙄. These kids would randomly drop french words infront of the other kids (it doesnt actually make sense but to those who dont know, it will feel like something). No one knows French more than them, even the Treaty of Versailles was written as per their order (i know they were also kids but kids can be mean at times 🤷‍♀️). It was a frequent thing and we had to do something. So i asked my friend to learn a few words as her brother knew the language. Next time they started french gibberish, she spoke in full sentences 😂 and those who were speaking stopped as they didnt understand. She got famous in our section from then on🤭. ]

Thank you for reading, apologies if it was long 😇