New Cricket-Blog author: Zapper
With Australia soon to tour India, Cricket-Blog is currently in the calm before the storm (who'll ever forget the madness of Bollyline). In the lead up, a new Indian author has joined the Cricket-Blog stable, Zapper:
I'm a 22 year old mechanical engineer residing in Kolkata, India. I would be joining the power generation sector very soon. Cricket had been the love of my life until it got replaced by mathematics on account of parental pressure. Now that the IPL is showering millions on the cricketers, they are ruing their decision like many other Indian parents. All Hail IPL!
Nevertheless, a man's first love always occupies a different spot in his heart and so was it in my case. It peaked during the 2003 World Cup, when not only did I watch all the matches but also didn't miss the repeat telecasts. The Aussie bulldozing of the Indian cricket team in the finals is something I'd like to forget though. My cricket career came to a grinding halt when I fractured my right wrist, ironically in a football match. After recovering, I continued playing gully cricket with 50 gram plastic balls though. :-)
I liked the way cricket-blog.com acted as a forum where fans from Australia and India expressed their deeply felt sentiments/opinions during the India tour of Australia 2007. With the Champions Trophy nearing, I'd like to see fans from the other countries as well, participating in the discussion and increase awareness about each other's cultures.
The tone of my narration is humorous, sarcastic and also a bit contentious, given that I stay very near to Sourav Ganguly's house ;-). Incase my article or a part of my article hurts a person/community, let me assure him/them that it's completely unintentional. I try to be as unbiased as possible though at times passion may blind me. I have full respect for all members/visitors of this blog and I abide by the Spirit of Cricket-Blog.
| Posted by JC on Mon 9 Jun |  10 comments |
Welcome Zapper... you've been posting for a while though haven't you?
I see you're location up there and, so tell me, the Kolkata / Calcutta thing - it 'seems' to be a sudden change to me but you guys have probably never used the Anglicised version, right? Is it that everyone outside of India has become more multi-lingual? I ask this because my old Wisden still refers to places like Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. So what's the history behind this Zapper?
Speaking personally, I learned far more geography from listening to radio Test Match coverage as a kid than I ever did in a classroom.
Yeah, I know... get a new Wisden... and drag myself out of the 70's...
Posted by virtualgaz on 2008-06-10 16:24:53
I see you're location up there and, so tell me, the Kolkata / Calcutta thing - it 'seems' to be a sudden change to me but you guys have probably never used the Anglicised version, right? Is it that everyone outside of India has become more multi-lingual? I ask this because my old Wisden still refers to places like Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. So what's the history behind this Zapper?
Speaking personally, I learned far more geography from listening to radio Test Match coverage as a kid than I ever did in a classroom.
Yeah, I know... get a new Wisden... and drag myself out of the 70's...
Posted by virtualgaz on 2008-06-10 16:24:53
gaz, frankly, most in India are as confused as you.
The Indian government has a bad habit of focussing on petty issues like name changes of cities/air ports/factories etc, while taps run dry and people starve.
OK, I think my criticism of the government is for another blog :)
The British gave some Indian cities good names - Madras, Calcutta, Bombay, Bangalore etc.
Despite most names being derived from Indian words and forklore, state governments have decided to "Indianize" the names, i.e, make it sound similar to the way we pronounce it in our local language, or add the name of an ancient diety etc.
For example, locals refer to Bangalore as Bengaluru, the way it is pronounced in Kannada, while majority are comfortable with the english name.
But the government, being the mindless chauvinists they are, left the world asking "Where is Bengaluru?" after their name change recently. Apart from losing a brand name that a city has built up over the years, it is a logistical nightmare of epic proportions.
And Re the answer to your question itself, its not that we don't use anglicized versions, we mostly use the versions that had stuck for a longer time, with the occasional mix of the new.
For example, as a resident for 15 years, and along with most locals, I still refer to Chennai as Madras most of the time. And thankfully some of the iconic locations still maintain older names like Bombay high court, IIT Madras etc.
If only those charlatans at the helm stopped fiddling around unnecessarily with non-issues like these and actually started working - apart filling their coffers that is, we'd be a lot better off.
I hope somewhere in my rant, you found the answer to your question :)
Posted by Ajesh Nag on 2008-06-10 21:08:43
The Indian government has a bad habit of focussing on petty issues like name changes of cities/air ports/factories etc, while taps run dry and people starve.
OK, I think my criticism of the government is for another blog :)
The British gave some Indian cities good names - Madras, Calcutta, Bombay, Bangalore etc.
Despite most names being derived from Indian words and forklore, state governments have decided to "Indianize" the names, i.e, make it sound similar to the way we pronounce it in our local language, or add the name of an ancient diety etc.
For example, locals refer to Bangalore as Bengaluru, the way it is pronounced in Kannada, while majority are comfortable with the english name.
But the government, being the mindless chauvinists they are, left the world asking "Where is Bengaluru?" after their name change recently. Apart from losing a brand name that a city has built up over the years, it is a logistical nightmare of epic proportions.
And Re the answer to your question itself, its not that we don't use anglicized versions, we mostly use the versions that had stuck for a longer time, with the occasional mix of the new.
For example, as a resident for 15 years, and along with most locals, I still refer to Chennai as Madras most of the time. And thankfully some of the iconic locations still maintain older names like Bombay high court, IIT Madras etc.
If only those charlatans at the helm stopped fiddling around unnecessarily with non-issues like these and actually started working - apart filling their coffers that is, we'd be a lot better off.
I hope somewhere in my rant, you found the answer to your question :)
Posted by Ajesh Nag on 2008-06-10 21:08:43
That's a very good question Gaz and thank you for asking.
The reasons behind the name changes of Bombay, Madras, Calcutta are multiple and a function of the regional politics and various other parameters describing these places. So one cannot quote a reason or a set of reasons in a generic sense. Name changes have happened in other Asian countries as well - Peking to Beijing in China, Rangoon to Yangon in Union of Myanmar - and the predominant reason was to shed any indication of an anglo influence and bring a more local tone to it. Various political analysts have unscrambled various reasons for these name changes but in the Kolkata perspective I can safely say that it was one of the steps taken by the state government to 'preserve the Bengali culture'. Why? Let me explain.
Bengalis are one of the proudest races in India, if not in the world. They pride themselves for a culture with a rich heritage that sets them apart from the rest of the country. Most Bengali children grow up learning classical dance, music or painting or any other form of art. Be it Ram Mohan Roy for the Brahmo Samaj, Rabindra Tagore for his literature, Subhash Chandra Bose for his Indian National Army or R.D. Burman in Bollywood, Bengalis have had a tremendous influence in shaping India to what she is today. There is a different genteel and elevated aspect to its culture which would take me an evening to explain to you. The reason might be Bengal's extreme closeness to the British culture of the early 1900's - Calcutta had been the British Raj's capital till 1912. No doubt, it was the best state in India till the 1970's and it used to be said, "What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow."
However, things have changed now. The 30 years communist rule in Bengal has dragged it to the bottom half of the 28 states in India. Bengal's fall should be a glaring embarrassment to the proponents of socialism.
The traditional Bengali's weak points are his poor man-management and interpersonal skills and his always-inflated-ego. These have often led to Bengalis' inability to adapt to what the rest of India had to offer and thus resulting in they being sidelined. The Bengali literature, even though with a rich oeuvre, lost all prominence outside Bengal in modern India. With globalisation, the importance of the English language has increased and led to a subsequent decrease in the use of the Bengali language. Night clubs, discotheques, malls have come up everywhere. The young are more interested in shaking a leg in the local discotheque to the DJ Sammy stuff than probably read a Tagore or listen classical music. To the traditional bengali, who values Tagore more than Shakespeare, it's nothing but the erosion of the culture they pride on. They fear that oneday the heritage might be lost forever.
Renaming streets, cities is one of the many steps taken as a result of that apprehension. For example, Bengali softwares have been created to check the growing importance of english language through the indispensable personal computer. How silly! We all know, Ego is the silliest three letter word known to mankind.
Anyway, Calcutta being renamed to Kolkata is logical, given in Bengali language it is called Kolkata (with a soft 't'). The new name is widely accepted though non-Bengalis find difficulty in pronouncing it correctly. But the renaming of several important streets like the Park street renamed to Mother Teresa Sarani ('sarani' means street) can be attributed to the reason mentioned above. Youngsters like me have not accepted the name change and we continue to call it Park Street. For some reason, for a happening place like Park Street, the new name doesn't fit the bill. No offence meant to Mother Teresa though.
That implicitly answers your quetion.
Cheers!
P.S.: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~easwaran/papers/india.html
Posted by Zapper on 2008-06-11 02:03:48
The reasons behind the name changes of Bombay, Madras, Calcutta are multiple and a function of the regional politics and various other parameters describing these places. So one cannot quote a reason or a set of reasons in a generic sense. Name changes have happened in other Asian countries as well - Peking to Beijing in China, Rangoon to Yangon in Union of Myanmar - and the predominant reason was to shed any indication of an anglo influence and bring a more local tone to it. Various political analysts have unscrambled various reasons for these name changes but in the Kolkata perspective I can safely say that it was one of the steps taken by the state government to 'preserve the Bengali culture'. Why? Let me explain.
Bengalis are one of the proudest races in India, if not in the world. They pride themselves for a culture with a rich heritage that sets them apart from the rest of the country. Most Bengali children grow up learning classical dance, music or painting or any other form of art. Be it Ram Mohan Roy for the Brahmo Samaj, Rabindra Tagore for his literature, Subhash Chandra Bose for his Indian National Army or R.D. Burman in Bollywood, Bengalis have had a tremendous influence in shaping India to what she is today. There is a different genteel and elevated aspect to its culture which would take me an evening to explain to you. The reason might be Bengal's extreme closeness to the British culture of the early 1900's - Calcutta had been the British Raj's capital till 1912. No doubt, it was the best state in India till the 1970's and it used to be said, "What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow."
However, things have changed now. The 30 years communist rule in Bengal has dragged it to the bottom half of the 28 states in India. Bengal's fall should be a glaring embarrassment to the proponents of socialism.
The traditional Bengali's weak points are his poor man-management and interpersonal skills and his always-inflated-ego. These have often led to Bengalis' inability to adapt to what the rest of India had to offer and thus resulting in they being sidelined. The Bengali literature, even though with a rich oeuvre, lost all prominence outside Bengal in modern India. With globalisation, the importance of the English language has increased and led to a subsequent decrease in the use of the Bengali language. Night clubs, discotheques, malls have come up everywhere. The young are more interested in shaking a leg in the local discotheque to the DJ Sammy stuff than probably read a Tagore or listen classical music. To the traditional bengali, who values Tagore more than Shakespeare, it's nothing but the erosion of the culture they pride on. They fear that oneday the heritage might be lost forever.
Renaming streets, cities is one of the many steps taken as a result of that apprehension. For example, Bengali softwares have been created to check the growing importance of english language through the indispensable personal computer. How silly! We all know, Ego is the silliest three letter word known to mankind.
Anyway, Calcutta being renamed to Kolkata is logical, given in Bengali language it is called Kolkata (with a soft 't'). The new name is widely accepted though non-Bengalis find difficulty in pronouncing it correctly. But the renaming of several important streets like the Park street renamed to Mother Teresa Sarani ('sarani' means street) can be attributed to the reason mentioned above. Youngsters like me have not accepted the name change and we continue to call it Park Street. For some reason, for a happening place like Park Street, the new name doesn't fit the bill. No offence meant to Mother Teresa though.
That implicitly answers your quetion.
Cheers!
P.S.: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~easwaran/papers/india.html
Posted by Zapper on 2008-06-11 02:03:48
Just to show how ignorant I am, I didn't even realise there were different names for the cities. You learn something new everyday :-)
Posted by JC on 2008-06-11 13:50:57
Posted by JC on 2008-06-11 13:50:57
WOW! Love it!
Thanks Ajesh & Zapper, and as JC pointed out, an education itself has been had here at cricket-blog!
Y'know, with these name changes I naturally assumed that they were the original dialect names and it was the English version which was reverting back to the proper name as India became more of a world force! Seems it's not that simple...
I'm most interested in the Bangalore change - seems like change for the sake of it! Hadn't heard that one yet. Strikes me that the only result here is going to be confusion! Well, it's doing a good job on me and the cricket records for starters.
Sounds like India has a bunch of silly Pollies like we do: Queensland's Premier recently changed the colour of our vehicle number plates so we aligned with his idea of being a 'smart state'. Uh? Good to debate the political stuff while we wait for the next test down here! Starts Fri. midnight for us in the Carib.
Now you know we Aussies are just a little bit keen on food (some say it's a nation obsession) but a hell of a lot of Indian cuisine is under threat here with the name changes! After taking to my Wisden with a red pen, that's next on my list - correcting all the Indian restaurant menus I can find!
Thanks for the edu guys - I always knew the Indians were a diverse lot but its deeper than a Kiwi field to Roy in the 49th over!
Posted by virtualgaz on 2008-06-11 18:03:03
Thanks Ajesh & Zapper, and as JC pointed out, an education itself has been had here at cricket-blog!
Y'know, with these name changes I naturally assumed that they were the original dialect names and it was the English version which was reverting back to the proper name as India became more of a world force! Seems it's not that simple...
I'm most interested in the Bangalore change - seems like change for the sake of it! Hadn't heard that one yet. Strikes me that the only result here is going to be confusion! Well, it's doing a good job on me and the cricket records for starters.
Sounds like India has a bunch of silly Pollies like we do: Queensland's Premier recently changed the colour of our vehicle number plates so we aligned with his idea of being a 'smart state'. Uh? Good to debate the political stuff while we wait for the next test down here! Starts Fri. midnight for us in the Carib.
Now you know we Aussies are just a little bit keen on food (some say it's a nation obsession) but a hell of a lot of Indian cuisine is under threat here with the name changes! After taking to my Wisden with a red pen, that's next on my list - correcting all the Indian restaurant menus I can find!
Thanks for the edu guys - I always knew the Indians were a diverse lot but its deeper than a Kiwi field to Roy in the 49th over!
Posted by virtualgaz on 2008-06-11 18:03:03
Hey Zapper , welcome to this fun place :)
I have a quick question for you ( Not on India)
Where was that picture or your taken :)
JC - have you mandated contributers to provide a Mug shot pic or what :P
Just kidding guys.
Cheers
Posted by Unsuidojo on 2008-06-17 06:58:00
I have a quick question for you ( Not on India)
Where was that picture or your taken :)
JC - have you mandated contributers to provide a Mug shot pic or what :P
Just kidding guys.
Cheers
Posted by Unsuidojo on 2008-06-17 06:58:00
Hi Zapper,
I am new to this blog site and reading your comments has inspired me a great deal to be part of these discussions as I am a big follower of the game. Cricket in my country is played by a few and on a smaller scale but I bet it will develop faster as time passes.
My passion for this game developed when I began watching international matches on telly and guess what, I love watching Australia and India (especially the young guns of India) play each other. I reckon these are two of the world's best teams!
Posted by Jess on 2008-07-08 19:09:12
I am new to this blog site and reading your comments has inspired me a great deal to be part of these discussions as I am a big follower of the game. Cricket in my country is played by a few and on a smaller scale but I bet it will develop faster as time passes.
My passion for this game developed when I began watching international matches on telly and guess what, I love watching Australia and India (especially the young guns of India) play each other. I reckon these are two of the world's best teams!
Posted by Jess on 2008-07-08 19:09:12
@Jess
Thanks and you're welcome!
Not sure about your last statement though.
P.S.: You didn't tell which country you are from.
Posted by zapper on 2008-07-08 19:33:26
Thanks and you're welcome!
Not sure about your last statement though.
P.S.: You didn't tell which country you are from.
Posted by zapper on 2008-07-08 19:33:26
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