Hello friends,

As I sit in my Mumbai home, battling the heat and humidity, I think of how Bombay has become Home to me, an ex Bangalore-girl, in the last 10 years.

Bombay has been officially rechristened Mumbai for quite a while now.  Just like Madras has become Chennai, Calcutta has become Kolkata, and more recently, Bangalore has become Bengalooru.  But in my mind, when I talk or think in English, I still say Bombay, Madras, Cal and Bangalore.  And I wonder, why not?  I find if pretty amusing when people make a big hue and cry about the city being Mumbai now, and we must do away with British Raj’s Bombay etc. etc.

I come from a middle-class Kannada family in Bangalore.  I speak Kannada very fluently, read and write, and have a pretty decent command over the language.  What I mean to say is, I’m not a Fake Kannadiga.  Coming to the point, when I’m speaking in Kannada, by default, I automatically say ‘Bengalooru’, since I was a child.  But at the same time, I’ve always said ‘Bangalore’ while speaking in English.  I find it a natural habit.

It’s like how we say Delhi when we speak in English, though we comfortably say Dilli while speaking in Hindi.  It’s as natural as that.  Don’t we say Bhaarat and Hindustan while speaking in Hindi, but say India when we speak in English, as automatically??  That’s why I don’t feel any qualm personally when I say Bombay or Madras.  In fact, when people living in Mumbai suburbs say “I’m going to Bombay today”, it means, they are going to Town, meaning the other side of the city, the Nariman point end.

Even the destination names shortened in all the airlines in India still retain the old name short forms.  BOM for Mumbai, not MUM.  MAA for Chennai, not CHE, and CAL for Kolkata, not KOL.  BLR is of course conflict-free J

Thank God, it’s still Bombay Times.  And Bombay Stock Exchange.  And of course, Bombay Duck.  Even a Vegetarian like me can’t digest Mumbai Duck.  Can you?

Sowmya Raoh,
27th August 2010,
Mumbai.