Yeah while most are there are words which are like extensions or short form of certain Hindi or north Indian language words.

Yeah while that's true, the Malayalam(which is yet another Dravidian language) for steps is "padikal"(which also seems to come from the same word padi).

Honestly I am still not convinced with this whole language grouping. Maybe i have to read into the links that people in other comments have shared.

Ohh I see, but being a native Hindi(said to be indo Europe) speaker I am pretty sure i won't understand even a word from german(Was making my way through learning Russian but hardly found any word that was close to its Hindi counterparts).

Whereas if i listen to kannada, which is a South Indian language (which is shown as Dravidian language)....i can pick words here and there.

Can someone shed some knowledge on how language groups are identified.