My State is now Odissa

There is a small correction in pronunciation of my state name. Now it is changed from Orissa to Odissa, while it gives me pleasure that it will be pronounced as it was coined and it will lead correction of so many things, I shall be called an Odiya from Oriya and our dance from will be called Odissi rather than Orissi. For reasons unknown, the British were lousy at pronouncing non-English names. So here we go again fixing another mispronunciation propagated by the Brits.

But why don’t we just let sleeping incorrect names lie? Because those folks didn’t let sleeping correct names lie when they were playing bossmen, did they? So how can we explain Kolkata being turned into Calcutta, Kanpur into Cawnpore and, most strangely of all, Varanasi into Benares — to the point of a famous Hindi film song sounding ridiculous even to our desi ears if sung as ‘Khai ke paan Varanasi-wala’? It turns out that the Brits — and their North American cousins across the pond — with their stiff upper palates pronounce things their way. So what is next inline, I think of again something from Odissa , kataka ( Cuttack).

I hope government of Odissa will spend very less in changing all the hoardings, all the official letter head, all the server space that has been reserved with old name in web world. I may say anything, if Odiya people will take pride that they are prounced absolutely right how they should be then I will be more happier than anyone else.