A Small Triumph

At dinner last night, I was talking to my friend Philip Koshy (retiree, mealtime-buddy, and very high in the running for "Coolest Old Guy Ever") and asking him for some words in Malayalam (sadly, the titular small triumph overshadowed the words I was learning and now I can't remember them!). He told me one of them, followed quickly by "But you won't be able to say it." for this word contained the Malayalam letter (i wish i could type in Malayalam to show it!) that is most often transliterated as "zh." Allegedly the toughest sound for a Westerner to master, this letter occupies a sort of gray area between an "r" and an "l," made by sort of rolling your tongue in the back of your throat without it really touching anything.
To Philip's astonishment, I repeated the word perfectly, "zh" included. He clapped and cheered, "Hey, you got it!"
He doesn't have to know that I had been taught the sound a week earlier and had spent several hours practicing it.
A win's a win.