Foreigners Gets Tongue-tied Over ‘Thiruvananthapuram’, Shashi Tharoor Reacts To Video (image-twitter/shashitharoor)
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor shared the video of South African players struggling to pronounce Kerala’s capital city ‘Thiruvananthapuram’ on Sunday. He opined that the name of the capital should have been Ananthapuri.
The video of South African players fumbling to pronounce the city’s name, in which they have arrived ahead of the World Cup has caught the attention of many, including the Congress MP. He posted the video on the microblogging site captioned, “The South African have arrived in Thiruvananthapuram! But can they tell anyone where they are?”.
The South African have arrived in Thiruvananthapuram ! But can they tell anyone where they are? pic.twitter.com/N9LnyVLVH9
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 1, 2023
The South African cricketers arrived in Kerala for the warm-up match at the Karyavattom Greenfeild Stadium ahead of the upcoming ICC World Cup.
When some of the users pointed out that this might be the case even for the Indians who aren’t from Kerala, Tharoor agreed and said that he have listened in horror when distinguished actors stumbled over the name at the annual International Film Festival of Kerala. “Very few of them manage to pronounce Thiruvananthapuram”, he wrote.
They don’t do any better. I’ve listened in horror to distinguished actors stumble over the name at the annual International Film Festival of Kerala. Very few of them manage to pronounce Thiruvananthapuram.
We should have opted for Ananthapuri! https://t.co/GU89uCqcB6
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 1, 2023
The southern-most district of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram which can be splits into ‘Tiru’, ‘Anantha’ and ‘Puram’ means ‘The City of Lord Anantha’. In 1991, Thiruvananthapuram was officially brought back from Trivandrum. As per the historians, it was initially known as Tiruaanandapuram””, “Syanandapuram”” and “Sanandapuram.”
