Welcome to Mysuru

I am completely for returning names of cities and town to its original form. Anglicized names should have been changed decades back. But the ruling elite during these periods were themselves byproduct, in most cases direct beneficiaries, of colonial past and so didn’t bother. They do come with egalitarian crap on this issue to hide their discomfort (like for instance R K Narayan’s essays). I recall there was same outcry in certain sections when Trivandrum was brought back to Thiruvanathapuram- a name which almost all the people use. Someone even said that these will make it difficult for outsiders. My answer is when they can ‘teach’ us nuances on English language, how to pronounce lingerie (of all the things!!) then they should take an effort to know what majority of people in this region speak.

Mysuru is what most people refer to this city except few anglicized as also the new settlers. Some might say that the government should focus on development issues and not ‘changing names’ (there is no ‘changing names’ here it is going back to the original) of towns and cities. It is strange but bringing back original names has nothing to do with non development on the contrary it is bringing back to the people what is theirs, part of their lexicon, their linguistic heritage a step that should have been taken much early. It is therefore in a way reflection of representation, more importantly assertion, of an aspect of identity of people of the region, long suppressed. There is more to people and place than ‘exploitable investmentopportunity’. Offcourse social and economic development remains the main priority otherwise these steps are cosmetic and essentially diversionary.

Mysuru palace sparkles in the festivities of Dushera