Thursday, November 02, 2006
Hello to all you pals out there in Bengalooru. It is me, Kaushika. The weather here in Hyderabadu is very cloudy since few days. I guess it is the same in my native Rayachooru too. Ah! this sounds very different.
Govt of Karnataka has renamed some of its cities to sound more native. I dont think there is anything wrong in it. Yes, one should have self respect towards their culture, heritage and language. Kannadigas should feel proud to give their capital a native name. Simple equation: Calcutta -> Kolkatta, Bombay -> Mumbai, Madras -> Chennai and hence Bangalore -> Bengalooru.
The British couldn't pronounce Indian words, so they renamed them. When Germans can name their cities as they like, Russians can have their 'zwaski' names and Chinese have 'ching-ming' names, why can't we have our own? We can. We should.
It is the same case in naming people too. Some of my friends have typical local names : Udaya, Prashantha; not Anglicized. I really like it that way.
Again, it is not that smooth all the way for some cities in India. For eg.,tell me, if you have to rename Delhi. What would it be? Dilli? But it could also be Indraprastha. BJP would say Indraprastha, Congress would say Dilli and accuse BJP of safronising the issue. Anyways, thank God it wasn't the case with namma Bengalooru.
Some other re-namakaranas on Nov 1st were
Hubli > Hubballi
Mangalore > Mangalooru
Gulbarga > Kalburgi
Hospet > Hosapete
Mysore > Mysooru
Shimoga > Shivamogga
Tumkur > Tumakuru
Posted at 04:37 pm by
kaushik
