Comments on No man's land?: Trivandrum, please

Ah thats great, I had a hunch it was taken by some...

2010-02-17T08:20:37.604Z

Ah thats great, I had a hunch it was taken by someone I knew but the the website didn't give the details where it was sourced from. Thanks anyway, and I've edited the image with credits :-)

The station picture is not at all photoshopped. I ...

2010-02-17T00:36:39.167Z

The station picture is not at all photoshopped. I captured it using a Canon PowerShot A510, and released in to wikipedia commons under GNU licenses.
Check : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tvmcentral.jpg

Infact, I feel its very cute and nice to bulid the...

2009-11-04T20:02:29.106Z

Infact, I feel its very cute and nice to bulid the brand- Thiruvanthanapuram, which could be bulit more vigourly with establishment of a Brand Office for the city. Because it has a strong sense of traditional pride and prestige associated with it, our own sense of identity and meaning, rather than a word like Trivandrum that adds NO MEANING. If we asked to explain the meaning of Trivandrum, it simply stands for the Corrupt English usuage of word- Thiruvanathapuram, which degrades our identity and pride.

Some cities like Calicut etc do have a meaning in its English word, as Protuguese called the city as Calicut because of its famous Calico cloth which was believed to orginated from Kozhikode...... But no such urban legend exists in case of Trivandrum.

The word Thiruvanthapuram highlights the existence of ERSTWHILE ESSENCE OF SREE PADMANABHA, thus helping to retain one of the strong bidding force of the state.

We must also know, the word Trivandrum was used only by Government of Kerala, after 1957, not before that offically by Government of Travancore. Only Britishers used to call the city as Trivandrum, whereas all the Government documents in Malayalam highlights the word- Thiruvanathapuram. Unlike Bombay or Madras, where commoners too used the English word, in case of Thiruvanthapuram, the people used to call the same, rather its English, other than the Upper middle class or English speaking elite.

I think, there can a promotion of a Nickname, like many other European cities. Calling it as Anathapuri or T'puram as a nickname would only add more value to the basic brand, rather than going back to a senseless word like Trivandrum

With regards
Arun

Appiyoor is the apropriate name for trivandrum..as...

2009-10-17T19:48:25.138+01:00

Appiyoor is the apropriate name for trivandrum..as a mark of respect to the appys there..

Anish: Loved it! :)

2009-10-17T09:42:35.321+01:00

Anish: Loved it! :)

yes..thiruvananthapuram is word which was a nightm...

2009-10-13T18:00:37.815+01:00

yes..thiruvananthapuram is word which was a nightmare as a kid in school...and its the same now when these northie frends(as u told), keep on mis spelling even the easier english version. I guess anantapuri is a good one, but dont want to see crores spent needlessly on another renaming excrcise...lets be fine with Trivandrum!!

Hello I think Thiruvananthpuram is quite difficult...

2009-10-13T12:32:12.422+01:00

Hello
I think Thiruvananthpuram is quite difficult name.I have never heard like this name.I have just heard Trivendrum before.Thank you for sharing some information about this place.

glucosamine

@ Sreejith, I'm not surprised provided the bank ca...

2009-10-13T11:34:21.146+01:00

@ Sreejith, I'm not surprised provided the bank can't even spell its own name properly :P. I remember an old post of yours.. :)

@ Nikhil, any day any time :)

@ rocksea, we'll get some tall cranes, trailers, barges etc etc etc..it will be a tough shift :P ;)

@ Dreamer
@ Anish Thomas
Actually it is the 8th longest. I mentioned that it featured among the longest 13 names.

@ smallTalk, if you read Ajay's comment above you'll see a point, its about brand-building for the city, with the coloquial vowel-consonent juggle name it is going to be very tough doing that. In the globalized world such trivial things are important.

what to say,these morons in the name of desi senti...

2009-10-13T06:46:54.249+01:00

what to say,these morons in the name of desi sentiments is making us a cloun in front of foreigners
Trivandrum-thiruvanathapuram
Banglore - Bengalaru
calcutta - kolkatha
P.S between trivandrum is the 13th.....is new info 2 me ...thanks for sharing here :)

I come from the land of Sena where they renamed ev...

2009-10-12T15:30:13.247+01:00

I come from the land of Sena where they renamed every nook and corner to the kith and kin of the erstwhile rulers....every major institution, renowned locale ws rechirstened (wt a paradox in the usage!!!)
Present governement at the center has also renamed every major infrastrucutre build during there tenure to thr family members
These are just ways and means to create politcal remanants after you have lost power...
After TVM, Blore, Mumbai was renamed I dnt think it made any difference to any1...neither the city nor its people...
Atleast the so called secular politicians of Kerala should consider ease of public usage rather than pseudo love 4 Malayalam and rename all places to as they were before....Calicut and Trivandrum sound more welcoming...

Been there, heard that!Did not know Thiruvananthap...

2009-10-12T12:47:30.419+01:00

Been there, heard that!Did not know Thiruvananthapuram was the 13-th longest name in the world, though. It's weird how many pronunciations exist for our state capital. I have heard many Northies refer to Trivandrum as Trivendrum. I mean how hard is it? "v a n" is pronounced as "van" in most parts of our country, isn't it? But we Malayalis get our revenge don't we. We pretty much mispronounce all non-Kerala place names too :)

shift the capital to kochi ;) [now, don't take it...

2009-10-12T09:42:18.623+01:00

shift the capital to kochi ;)

[now, don't take it serious :D]

SG, Checking the name of our city was one of my pe...

2009-10-12T03:43:56.216+01:00

SG,
Checking the name of our city was one of my pet peeves.This is when it was Trivandrum.

As Ajay has mentioned,as a brand name Thiruvananthapuram would #fail.
So,Trivandrum any day.
-Nikhil

It is better to have this short name "Trivandrum" ...

2009-10-11T08:25:48.683+01:00

It is better to have this short name "Trivandrum" instead of chopping the sides off of "Thiruvananthapuram". Interestingly, the From Name of official email address of the MG Road branch of IndusInd bank says "Trivendrum". :)

@ BVN & @ Ajay Thanks for the responses, I feel i...

2009-10-11T06:18:37.429+01:00

@ BVN &
@ Ajay

Thanks for the responses, I feel if it was Thiru Anantha Puram then it would've erased some of the trouble with this pronunciation as in the case with Rio as you mentioned. Building a world-class city is the priority but branding that city should go along the development process and not after. Trivandrum is much more suited for international recognition. At the moment, except for us mallus and Tamilians I don't see such a brand building with Thiruvananthapuram possible.

@ Xylene, hahaaa an accent!! Ask them to try the real name. I noticed even the news readers pronouncing it Trivendram and Thiru-Ananth-puram.. :)

@ Sreeram, thanks for the comment friend. I sourced the image from a travel website but I felt they got it from some other photosite, so didn't give the credits. The image looks real and the tree has been mutilated to go along with the other features of the park. :)

Damn that developer who put VARCHAR2(15) in airtic...

2009-10-10T19:06:29.084+01:00

Damn that developer who put VARCHAR2(15) in airticket printing code and those who cut the tree in the park (Nice shot of our railway station, did u photoshopped it?)

-- Sreeram.H

The pronunciation differs at everyone's convenienc...

2009-10-10T15:23:49.330+01:00

The pronunciation differs at everyone's convenience. I was once corrected by a guy from North India on how to pronounce Trevendrum. :)
He said I had an accent when I said Trivandrum :)

I agree that BVN's suggestion of building a world-...

2009-10-10T09:43:43.586+01:00

I agree that BVN's suggestion of building a world-class city is better than just focusing on the name, but in the short term the brand has to be built up around the name.

In all senses, ease of use, length and what not, TRIVANDRUM is head-and-shoulders ahead of the rest. Ananthapuri is a romantic suggestion but even residents of the city wouldn't be using it today.

I am sick and tired of how the rest of India mispronounces even the word "TRIVANDRUM". The Railways and the airlines seem to be particularly found of TRIVENDRAM.

In a rapidly integrating world, we should be aiming for greater clarity in communication not lesser.

This is something serious we need to think about. ...

2009-10-09T20:08:24.878+01:00

This is something serious we need to think about. Many foreigners I came across recently referred to the city as "beautiful Trivandrum with a real name you cant say". I do understand the discomfort and confusion you have mentioned, but let me try to spin it a bit.

Thiruvananthapuram is an exotic name. I recently went on a hike in Guatemala, and went to places like Tikal which were easy to say, and places like Chichicastenago and Iguana La Perdida which are not. But when I say my stories about Guat, which names do you think draws more attention?

Compare Rio De Janiero and Brasilia. There is a charm in names :)

And Tarantino and Scorsese are tougher names compared to Ed Wood and Mark Smith :)

Why dont we create a great city and the world will have to remember our name :)

And btw, I am going thru several of your old posts and man, you are one of the best researched bloggers! Do you do anything else productive for a living.

Great going pal!