Bengalooru with better infrastructure is fine

Bengalooru with better infrastructure is fine
CEOs Say Change Of Name Won’t Matter But Change In Govt Perspective On Infrastructure Surely Would
The Economic Times

“WHAT’S in a name, that we call rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” said Shakespeare a good 300-plus years ago. Many in the political and literary circles of Karnataka do not appear to agree with the Bard, considering the state government’s decision to rename Bangalore as ‘Bengalooru’, a century-old name, which itself is a corruption of ‘Bendakaluru’, literally meaning ‘town of boiled beans.”

The new name will be effective from November 2006, chief minister Dharam Singh said on Sunday. It is interesting that he chose Gulbarga, which is 500-plus km away from Bangalore, to make the announcement. Politicians argue that it is appropriate for Bangalore to shed its colonial name and revert to the original. When Bombay, Madras and Calcutta can become Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata respectively, why not Bengalooru they ask.

The city of 6.5 million has a large concentration of information technology firms and has developed an awesome reputation as the most preferred destination for outsourcing. So much so that techies in the US who lost their jobs to companies outsourcing to Bangalore, were referred to as being “Bangalored.” With over 1,500 technology companies, the city accounts for a third of India’s $17 billion software and services export earnings.

The name change has not created any major excitement or concern among the city’s corporates. Most CEOs that ET spoke to said that it really does not matter if Bangalore is called Bengalooru, expect that it would take some time before the new name sinks in and people get the spelling right.
Not wanting to take on the government openly, some CEOs said it is more important for people in power to drastically upgrade the pathetic conditions of the city’s infrastructure than go for cosmetic measures such as name change.

The general consensus being that if influential literary minds — who apparently suggested the name change to the government — want to do something good for the city they claim to love, then they should get together and push the government to uplift the quality of life of the localities and make sure that the city regains its lost glory.

Gautam Sinha, CEO, TVA Infotech, an IT recruiting agency feels that the impact of the name change will not impact business. “If it had happened 3-4 years ago, maybe, but now the brand is too established. The thing which might have an impact is the roads and infrastructure and not the different name.

A view echoed by Mahesh Dattani, playwright who said, “For the Kannadigas, it has always been Bengalooru, just like for Maharashtrians, Bombay was always Mumbai. But my problem with the name change is that there are a hundred other more pressing issues in the city that need to be addressed. And changing the city’s name is going to cost a lot of money; so it is a misplaced move. Also, the spelling would need some consideration as the ‘Bengal’ in Bengalooru would create confusion.”

The poster boy of India’s budget aviation, G R Gopinath, managing director, Air Deccan said, ”The name does not matter so much if any future initiative can help in restoring the essence of the city.”

Bangalore in blogosphere

True to their spirit of free and frank exchange of thoughts, the tribe of bloggers have picked up the issue with great gusto.
Here are a few samples:
Blogger 1: A possible conversation at an American company in future will be:
John: Say Mike, do you know where all our jobs are going now?”
Mike: Ummm...aaah... Ben-gaa-loo-ruu.
John: Serves those Bangaloreans right.

Blogger 2: Bengaluru is actually not a change in name. Those who know Kannada know that that is how it is pronounced, spelt and written in Kannada.
So there was inconsistency earlier in the way the same name was spelt and pronounced in three different languages — ByangalOre in English, Bengaluru in Kannada and for some unknown reason Bunglor in Hindi.
Now we can say the inconsistency is removed.