Bangalore:
Bangalore, Garden City, Pensioners' Paradise, IT capital of India...the capital of Karnataka has many names. Now coming full circle, it will go back to being Bengaluru, now that the Centre has cleared a long-standing demand of the state.
Eleven other cities and towns will revert to their old names too - among them Mysore, Mangalore and Bellary. The change will come in effect from November 1.
"The proposal was sent long back, during Kumaraswamy period or Dharam Singh period. Now the home ministry has taken the decision and they have approved our proposal," Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told NDTV.
In Kannada, the city has always been called Bengaluru. The change of name was a dream of many -- including the late Jnanpith awardee UR Ananthamurthy.
Another Jnanpith awardee, playwright Girish Karnad, told NDTV, "It is not really a change of name. It is only a change of spelling. We have always been saying Bengaluru... It is not like Madras being turned into Chennai, which was a distinct change of name.
Public opinion is divided on the issue."
A young woman said, "Bangalore should have its originality. Bengaluru is the right name that should be used."
Another worried whether north Indians will be able to pronounce it properly. "If people come from the outside, they can't say the name," he said.
"I think we have come a long way from Bengaluru to Bangalore, and Bangalore has been around for a long time," said a man who thought the city should remain "Bangalore". "The world over, we have a term in the IT industry - 'Bangalored'. If there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the name and it is already famous, there is no reason to change it. It is futile. You waste time, money and effort and it creates confusion."