Friday, December 09, 2005
Bengaluru
I do not want to crow in delight, but I did gaze into my crystal ball in Septemeber 2004 and predicted that the day is not too far way when Bangalore will be re-christened as Bengaluru. Going by the current political debate it appears that the city will undergo a name change in the near future. It will be interesting to watch the developments unfold, and see if there is any kind of debate on this, or if will be a unilateral decision from the powers that be.
While we are on this name changing trend, I have a suggestion. Let us all change our names and go back to the original spelling. So, for instance if I lived in South India my name would be prounced as "Kamlah" the middle syllable will be stressed. But, if I lived in the North, my name would be spelt differenly and the first syllable would be stressed. How do we resolve these regional differences?
I wonder which city is going to change its name next? Kanpur maybe? Remember how the British spelt it? Cawnpore? I wonder if the original name of the city is Kaunpur? Similarly, Lucknow may undergo a change and you might see it spelt as Lakhnav, or something approximating it.
Maybe we should change the name of India itself. Why India, which is derived from the word "Sindh" or "Hind" (depending which theory you subscribe). I know, I know many refer to it as Bharat, but maybe we should find a neutral name for the country? Instrestingly, the Chinese still refer to Indians as "Indhus" or "Hindhus" in their language...be it Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka or any other Chinese dialect. That is how people from India were historically referred to by the Chinese and the word has passed from one century to the next.
While we are on this name changing trend, I have a suggestion. Let us all change our names and go back to the original spelling. So, for instance if I lived in South India my name would be prounced as "Kamlah" the middle syllable will be stressed. But, if I lived in the North, my name would be spelt differenly and the first syllable would be stressed. How do we resolve these regional differences?
I wonder which city is going to change its name next? Kanpur maybe? Remember how the British spelt it? Cawnpore? I wonder if the original name of the city is Kaunpur? Similarly, Lucknow may undergo a change and you might see it spelt as Lakhnav, or something approximating it.
Maybe we should change the name of India itself. Why India, which is derived from the word "Sindh" or "Hind" (depending which theory you subscribe). I know, I know many refer to it as Bharat, but maybe we should find a neutral name for the country? Instrestingly, the Chinese still refer to Indians as "Indhus" or "Hindhus" in their language...be it Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka or any other Chinese dialect. That is how people from India were historically referred to by the Chinese and the word has passed from one century to the next.
