Its official. Bengaluru it is. Not just that, we now have Mysuru, Tumakuru, Mangaluru, Belagavi, Hubballi and so on.
A little bit of history, before I put forth my concern.
Renaming of cities was mooted nine years ago, but the UPA government put it on the back burner. The suggestion came from Jnanpith awardee UR Ananthamurthy, popularly known as URA (or URU as I would’ve called him). He urged the then chief minister Dharam Singh, in 2005, to rename Bangalore to mark Karnataka’s golden jubilee celebrations. Even as Singh readily agreed, demands from other districts cropped up, making it a list of 12 cities.
Not only is this going to cost the state crores to change every name board and display across to reflect the new names, people from other parts are going to make a mess of its pronunciation. Catch one of our american friend to say Hosapete, without him/ her adding Sampras after that.
Some confused souls have only managed it half way. They are calling it Bangaluru. Friends from north, please note, you should start the word just like Virat Kohli’s favourite word to get it right.
The bongs here are calling it ‘Bengal’uru with a pause just for kicks. My mallu brothers are suggesting that it would’ve been better had they changed it to Bengalapuram on the lines with Mangalapuram that they are used to.
Mr. URU in an interview in 2005, said “The name-change is the first step to cope with retaining identity in the times of globalisation and an increasingly Anglicised word. It is to force English language to accept – within its sound system – a word like Bengaluru, which ends with a vowel rather than consonant.”
That clearly explains the early adoption of other words like Caru, Biku, Busu, Tempulu, Baru, Tableu (go with the flow, you will get this word), Musicu, Officeu and so on.
Personally, I am going to find it difficult that a favourite sweet of mine will now be Mysuru Paku.
Whatever be the reason, they should’ve confidently made all the changes in 1947. Why wait for this long?
“Are you sure you are leaving? You won’t be coming back? It’s going to be difficult to change it now and change it back later you know, so we need to be sure you are not coming back. No? Sure?
Cool. It’s f***** Bengaluru, that’s Mumbai, that one is Kolkata, and the other one is Chennai! Understand? Stupid Britsu.”
