It’s been 4 days since Bangalore (and a few of her friends) had her name changed. Since “the English names have not yet been finalised”, it will either be Bengalaroo or Bengalaru (this is closer to the original name, Benda Kaal Ooru, which literally means, “the city of baked beans”). But with numerology invading Indian media these days, don’t be surprised if the offical name ends up being Bennngalllaaarrooooo.

Indian IT firms agree that this is just not a smart move.

“Bangalore represents a cosmopolitan, multicultural brand,” said Nandan Nilekani, chief of Infosys Technologies, the outsourcing company, adding: “It is not prudent to abandon the name of India’s most global city.”

Also, what about the anti-outsourcers?  In the past, they could say an outsourced position had been “bangalored”…if you don’t know what’s being talked about, that sounds pretty bad.  Like, you could be walking down a dark alley one day, and BOOM!, you’re Bangalored, sucker. Now, these guys will have to try for something like “bengalarood”, which no matter how much you snarl your lip, just sounds like something fun.

The reason for the name change?  Like Mumbai and Chennai, it is about nationalism.  Instead of working on poverty and infrastructure, let’s spend a couple million on new street signs and stationary.

“There is not much difference in pronunciation,” said homemaker H. Lalita Bai. “Changing the name plates and signs throughout the city will cost heavily to the government and the public.” She added that the name change may help “politicians become popular and to erase from the people’s minds the blunders that they have committed.”

At least with Mumbai and Chennai, the words sounds different enough from their predecessors.  In the case of Bengalaru, the name change represents a marginal change in English and practically none in (the local language) Kannada:

The Kannada language media has always written and pronounced “Bangalore” as “Bengaluru.” Therefore, if the name change will really materialize, a Kannada language article might say something to the effect that, “There is a proposal to change the name of Bengaluru from Bangalore to Bengaluru,” but will actually sound like: “There is a proposal to change the name of Bengaluru from Bangaluru to Bengaluru.”