Beantown, now in India

While the original Beantown gets a flavour of India (see previous post), India's own Beantown now proudly calls itself that. See this:

Bengalooru. Meaning, City of Baked Beans. A very nicely written, and funny article from the Economist about place names and name changes.

As it rightly asks, why are only English speakers expected to kowtow to name changes? The French say Edimbourg, the Italians say Pechino and the Germans (and Dutch) say Kapstadt. And they all get away with it. Woe betide the English speaker (accented or otherwise) who dares mispronounce Edinburgh, Beijing or Capetown. Should we be flattered that expectations are higher for us English speakers?

Namaskar, Boston mein apka swagat hai...

Taj Boston.

Don't remember seeing a Taj in Boston? Right, that would be the Ritz Carlton. Indian Hotels (owner of the Taj Group) just signed an agreement with Millenium to complete the purchase by Jan 11, 2007. See link above for more details.