Name (sounding) sakes

cheens · Post by **cheens** » 10 Jul 2009, 21:46

Im visiting Bay Area and was listening to KGO 810 AM. There was an ad for a car dealr in Burlingame that got me really amused. I did not pass much attention to the ad till I heard this name "Putnam Subaru". The voice in the ad was sounding much like saying "Patnam Subra". Pleasant surprise for a Friday morning. Have you guys come across such carnatic music related names in some unusual circumstances??

- Cheenu

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 10 Jul 2009, 22:19

Raghu vamsa subarum budhi chandra sri...

Yes, subaru always had that Indian ring to me whenever I say it or hear it.

Same with some Russian names like "Vitaly", "Parnas" etc.

shishya · Post by **shishya** » 10 Jul 2009, 23:51

My husband has successfully Telugu-ised Subaru to Subba Rao

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 11 Jul 2009, 00:30

That reminds me that an elderly canadian gentleman used to call my room mate Rao as 'Ray O'. I tried very hard to make him see the difference but could not. After a while we ourselves started calling our friend Rao, Ray O

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 11 Jul 2009, 01:06

The reason for that is thet there is an Italian last name Rao which is pronounced as Ray O.

shripathi_g · Post by **shripathi_g** » 11 Jul 2009, 04:09

My first car was a battered Subaru in Grad school and I used to refer to it affectionately as Mr. Subba Rao actually!

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 11 Jul 2009, 05:38

here in the state of New South Wales (Australia) we have a river called Nattai River and the Nattai national park. It is south west of Sydney.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&sa ... 10&iwloc=A

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 11 Jul 2009, 07:36

We have exact namesakes too. We have more Salems in the US than in India, it seems! Delhi (pronounced del high), Putnam county--how can a patnam be county--like the old Madras Presidency?
Our friend of four decades--Bill Bond is vil pANDiyan to us.
Of course, in an inter continental marriage, some couple tend to choose names for their children as Neel (Neil), Rita, Tara, Anjali (Angela) and so on.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 11 Jul 2009, 07:41

Lakshman and VK,
While italian-americans pronounce Rao as Ray O, I would think the italians would say RA-O.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 11 Jul 2009, 07:45

Mohan,
Aussie nATTu nATTai nadiyilE OTTai boat-ai OTTap pOnEn--makes a good tongue twister. In a few years, your son might love mouthing it, like my three year old grandson who loves making up his own!

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 11 Jul 2009, 07:57

Really nice! A river by the name of a raga! I will try to compel the sabha secretary to take the winners there, if possible!! =)

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 11 Jul 2009, 08:03

Mispronunciations are quite common in the classroom. We had a chemistry lesson where a scientist's name was 'Markovnikov' but our teacher pronounced it as 'Markofnikoff'. When we asked her why, she said that there are different spellings in different books. When we felt sorry for the scientists, she told us the below incident.

Her friend, also a chemistry teacher whose name is U.Kameshwari, went to France for research. Her colleagues couldn't pronounce her name properly. They called her 'Ukri'!! That is really annoying! So, there's nothing wrong in us Indians to mispronounce foreigners' names'!! =)

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 11 Jul 2009, 08:10

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 11 Jul 2009, 18:27

Arasiji - that sure is a good tongue twister! Nattai seems to be my 4 year old daughter's favourite raga too!

Another famous Aussie landmark is Ayer's Rock! It is located in the interior parts of the Northern Territory and is now known by the Aboriginal name of 'Uluru'. Both names are Indian sounding!

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 11 Jul 2009, 18:44

I thought we were discussing namesakes related to CM.
Anyway, there is a Lucknow and Delhi (pronounced as Del High as arasi says), about 100 km from where I live, a Baroda in western Michigan and a Bombay in northern New York state.

Sundara Rajan · Post by **Sundara Rajan** » 11 Jul 2009, 20:24

My great great grand father, a sanskrit scholar went to England and translated several sanskrit dramas into English, changing some of the names and locales in the dramas. He became world famous. Englishmen, who could not pronounce Indian names changed Tiruchirappalli into Trichinopoly. Similarly they changed my forefather's name from "Seshappa Iyer" into Shakespear. The rest is history !

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 11 Jul 2009, 20:39

Sundara Rajan,
I am afraid that those books, unless carefully preserved by the family, are perhaps lost to us. A pity.

Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar brought Shakespeare to tamizh readers by translating some of his plays. Manohara, based on Hamlet was made into a film starring Sivaji.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 11 Jul 2009, 20:41

Arasi, Sundara Rajan is pulling our legs.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 11 Jul 2009, 20:43

Lakshman,
How could I forget Bombay in New York state! No, I don't think they have renamed it Mumbai

Anyway, these names ARE connected to music: Bombay Sisters, Delhi Muthukumar, Delhi Sundararajan...

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 11 Jul 2009, 22:31

Some tamilans claim that Shakespeare's real name was Seshadri Iyer but the British people could not say this and changed it.
Kannadigas also claim that his real name was Seshappa Iyer.

sridhar_ranga · Post by **sridhar_ranga** » 11 Jul 2009, 22:47

Byron was called Bhairavan before he took a boat to the Queen's land long ago!
Keats was from Srivilliputtur originally. ANDAL had sung about him: Keatsu Keatsu enDru AnaiccAttan kalandu engum pEsina pEccaravam ...
Shelley was known as Selvi before (s)he went in for the sex change operation!

uday_shankar · Post by **uday_shankar** » 11 Jul 2009, 22:54

While passing thru the beautiful forested hills near Kemmangundi in Chikmagalur district of Karnataka, I was thinking to myself that this is where the Pitamaha of "Karnatak" music should have been from and he should have been named Kemmangundi Sreenivasiah.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 12 Jul 2009, 01:38

I have always thought of Shakespeare as jaga SiRpi-yan--the supreme sculptor who fashioned a fantastic world of drama and poetry.
I call him that in one of my poems too.
No, Sundara Rajan, I am not pulling your leg

A quiz for those who know my poems: you can say which one it is. I have a feeling CML alone would know!

vidya · Post by **vidya** » 12 Jul 2009, 03:32

mohan wrote:here in the state of New South Wales (Australia) we have a river called Nattai River and the Nattai national park. It is south west of Sydney.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&sa ... 10&iwloc=A

Looks like 4 of the 5 Ghana ragams have namesakes. There's a Gaula river in Norway, I recently saw a Varalli restaurant (Italian) in Downtown Philadelphia
(in no less a place than the Avenue of the Arts) and then there's an Arabi in Louisiana. And of course we have Manji (as in Irshad Manji) and Saveri is another
Italian last name.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 12 Jul 2009, 04:19

Vidya: Nice. There is a Paradorn Srichaphan, a tennis player from Thailand but that Sri probably is a direct Indian influence in Thailand many centuries back. Until someone finds a good Sri not connected to India, this will have to do

vs_manjunath · Post by **vs_manjunath** » 12 Jul 2009, 04:35

coolkarni wrote:On Village Road ,Nungambakkam,there are a row of apartments named after Hindusthani Ragas- Darbari, etc.I am speaking from memory.Will Check up.

I think all the Hostel names in IIT,Chennai are River names. Cauvery,Krishna, Tapti etc.,

vs_manjunath · Post by **vs_manjunath** » 12 Jul 2009, 04:38

Uday_Shankar wrote:While passing thru the beautiful forested hills near Kemmangundi in Chikmagalur district of Karnataka, I was thinking to myself that this is where the Pitamaha of "Karnatak" music should have been from and he should have been named Kemmangundi Sreenivasiah.

We are happy that there is a "Kemmangundi" Sreenivasiah parallel to " Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer" in Karnataka.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 12 Jul 2009, 07:02

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 12 Jul 2009, 07:49

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 12 Jul 2009, 09:04

Don't ANDAL and Keats belong to the same kulam--kavik kulam?!

sridhar_ranga · Post by **sridhar_ranga** » 12 Jul 2009, 09:38

Chill out Srinivas - it was just harmless humour on the lines of Shakespeare - Seshappa Iyer. No personal insult or slander intended towards either Andal or Keats. As Arasi says both belong to kavik kulam and deserve our respct immensely. Let's stop bringing in fatwa-issuing type fanaticism here.

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 12 Jul 2009, 09:47

sridhar_ranga · Post by **sridhar_ranga** » 12 Jul 2009, 12:26

I don't wish to prolong the argument either...there was no disrespect whatsoever to transgenders in my post...it was just a play on Indian and English names/ words. Thanks.

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 12 Jul 2009, 14:04

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 12 Jul 2009, 14:08

There is an apartment in Adyar called 'Ragamalika Apartments'! It is quite a mixture altogether! =)
And, there's a builder (construction company) called 'Arun Excello' that names their flats with carnatic raga names like Desh, Charukesi, Hamsadhwani, Madhuvanthi, Amrithavarshini, Neelambari, Anandhabhairavi etc.

vs_manjunath · Post by **vs_manjunath** » 12 Jul 2009, 21:40

My house name is "HIRANMAYEEM" after listening to DKJ rendition of this song on Godess Lakshmi, I selected this name.

Nia Rmohan · Post by **Nia Rmohan** » 12 Jul 2009, 21:52

my school is over 50% punjabi.
and over 60% brown.

So we go around and give people with caucasian names, indian names.

too bad most of them have no real meaning to them...

karthikbala · Post by **karthikbala** » 13 Jul 2009, 14:24

Lakshman wrote:The reason for that is thet there is an Italian last name Rao which is pronounced as Ray O.

funny.... reo in Italian means guilty, culprit, offending etc.

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 14 Jul 2009, 22:11

And there is 'Mount Rainier- Narada Falls'.
Here in Chembur Mumbai, we have a housing society in which all the buildings are named after ragas-like bhairavi, varali etc.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 14 Jul 2009, 23:07

At Grand Canyon, Shiva Temple: A huge temple like peak off Tiyo Point on the north side at 7,650 feet. Named by Clarence Dutton after a Hindu God

There are other peaks that are named Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Buddha and Zoroastra etc.

These names were given impromptu by early explorers based on what the eyes first saw and the senses first experienced.

The credit for the Hindu names of some of the major plateaus and rock formations goes to Clarence Edward Dutton who was deeply influenced by the philosophies of the east. He was a geologist and captain of ordinance in the US Army. He was an associate of John Wesley Powell, the primary explorer of the Grand Canyon region.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 18 Jul 2009, 07:04

There is a Todi in Italy.

I just noticed it when I was looking at a map of Italy. http://www.booking.com/city/it/todi.html

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 18 Jul 2009, 07:42

tODiyaip 'piDi'ppadu sulabamO?
indat tODiyait tEDik kaNDu piDittAlum?

(Is it easy to handle the rAgam tODi, even though you could find this tODi easily?)
In tamizh 'piDippadu' can mean to catch hold of, to grasp, among other meanings.

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 24 Jul 2009, 09:00

Punarvasu wrote:Here in Chembur Mumbai, we have a housing society in which all the buildings are named after ragas-like bhairavi, varali etc.

Yes - mOhana, kAmbhOji, kalyANi, sahAnA, shyAmA, bhairavi, varALi, thODi. Hindustani is also well represented with bahAr, basant and lalit. A charming old society [the likes of which are disappearing fast] where some scenes from the movie 'Taare Zameen Par' were shot.

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 24 Jul 2009, 14:04

Prashant, I did not know about the 'Taare Zameen Par' shoot in uttam society; If had known, I would have observed closely while watching the movie.-