Do I live in Keral or Kerala or Keralam?
Posted by Sree Pillai on October 29th, 2006 under category General
Topics: Kerala
The south western state of India, where I live, is celebrating its 50 years of existence on 1st of November. In Hindi the state’s name is Keral [़ केरल, Kēraḷ], in English it is Kerala ['keːɹəˌlə] and in Malayalam it is Keralam [േകരളം, Kēraḷaṁ].
Even in Government documents different names are used depending on the language. When will the government unify the name of the state – be it Keralam or Kerala or Keral? I prefer the name Keralam as it means ‘the land of coconut trees’ in Malayalam.
BTW, sometimes I feel that the state should have been named Malayalam as the word means ‘the land of hills’, which is true. So we would have been the Malayalam speaking people of the state of Malayalam!
I think it would be a good idea for the ‘Keralam’ Government to think about it and make a change during the 50 year celebrations.
Kerala in Wikipedia, Official website
6 Responses to “Do I live in Keral or Kerala or Keralam?”
Leave a Reply
Author Email: sree@teck.in
Sree, whatever u call, a rose is always a rose ! – diana
hey suresh, kuttan, it is just a suggestion, not an issue at all.
Since our government is not doing anything on bigger issues like infrastructure development, just checking if they can at least do some gimmicks like this.
Yeah right lets add some fuel to the ever increasing jamboree of changing names. Be it Keral, Kerala or Keralam everyone in India knows where it is and what it means so why bother changing it?
hi sree, why behind changing names, lot of confusion prevails, i haeard of puthuchery for pondicherry. who in this earth will be intrested in remebering the change of names. regarding kerala, keralam & keral, atleast it sounds same, and anybody who hears knows it is keralam only. there are many bigger issues, we can concentrate on that, not in these petty issues
That’s why one of my friend named his daughter as ‘Anamika’, meaning ‘one who has no name’
What is in a name, right? ..:)