Any change anywhere?

December 16th, 2006 · 9 Comments

First they changed the names of the prominent cities in the state. Bangalore to Bengaluru, Mysore to Mysooru, Hubli to hubballi and so on and so forth. People thought it was uncool, would spoil the brand image of these places and some even went to the extent of saying that it was a political move.

What move? What change? What are they talking about? I don’t understand.

If you have been born and brought up in Karnataka and have learnt to read and write kannada then I am sure you are also wondering, in chorus, what all this is about!

We have always been taught Mysore as Mysooru ಮೈಸೂರು in kannda and Bangalore has always been ಬೆಂಗಳುರು or Bengaluru, Shimoga ಶಿವಮೊಗ್ಗ Shivamogga, Hubli ಹುಬ್ಬಳಿ Hubballi and the list goes on. The Britishers couldn’t turn their stiff useless tongues to these wonderful names and they changed it to their convenience.

And we became slaves of habit! Bangaloh began sounding cool and as usual “change” was resisted. But then sense prevailed at the Government level (rare! Very rare!) and the “change” was implemented. For my part, I was always wondering where was the “change”? And am still wondering…

Tags: Mysore · Bangalore

9 responses so far ↓

Viky // Dec 16, 2006 at 12:35 pm

Of course, it is no change at all for us kannaDigas, because essentially, what they have done is change the English spelling to the transliterated version of the kannaDa name.

What has happened is that it has given another option for the non-kannaDigas to use. First of all they twist the names to their convenience - now they make a big deal of asking us how it is pronounced now….
raj // Dec 17, 2006 at 4:28 am

It is bengaloor in tamil so please spare the tams when you go on a rampage with sickles and knives ;-)
Mysorean // Dec 18, 2006 at 1:40 am

Viky:
There you have raj proving your point!

Raj:
I ll first ’smoke you out of your hole’ and then think what to do with you!
Santhosh // Dec 18, 2006 at 6:31 pm

I agree…learnt Kannada for three years in School.

Can we just say, like every other policy move, the government is actually doing NOTHING and yet seemingly created a ‘frame’ as if its doing something (by changing the name!). Also, cook-up resistance to the process, so that they can alienate one set of voters (’real’ Kannadigas like us) , so that when its time to vote (if we vote) we forget that there are NO roads to our village, and that the schools are shitty, while we remember that this government was really pro-Kannadiga.

Sounds something like the British, dont you think?
Mysorean // Dec 18, 2006 at 9:00 pm

Santhosh:
British… yeah… the problem is these are our own people and that they seem to be resembling British strategies is so … I don’t know what to say… depressing? I don’t know. But it is a sad state of affairs!
Viky // Dec 19, 2006 at 3:59 pm

More change of names here. As he suggests, it seems to be the handiwork of the sign-board writers’ lobby :D
Mysorean // Dec 20, 2006 at 5:20 am

Heh heh… Good one!
suresh s // Dec 24, 2006 at 10:02 am

Just changing names will not make any difference. We gotta change out attitudes !!!
Mysorean // Dec 24, 2006 at 10:23 am

Fair argument Suresh. How do we start going about it is the tougher question to answer!

Mysorean