Tharoor says foreigners face difficulties in pronouncing Thiruvananthapuram

Senior Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor has shared the difficulty of foreigners in pronouncing the name of his constituency and opined that the name of the capital city should have been Ananthapuri.

A recent viral video of South African cricket players struggling to pronounce the name of the Kerala capital persuaded the three-time Parliamentarian to come up with a post on his X handle in this regard the other day.

Barring some players, a majority of cricketers could be seen failing to pronounce the city name correctly in the brief video. The South African cricketers arrived at Thiruvananthapuram recently for a warm-up match at the Karyavattom Greenfield Stadium ahead of the upcoming ICC World Cup.

“The South African have arrived in Thiruvananthapuram! But can they tell anyone where they are?” Tharoor asked, sharing the viral video in which foreigners were seen pronouncing Thiruvananthapuram in different ways.

Noting that they don’t do any better, the MP said he had listened in horror to many distinguished actors stumble over the name of the city during the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), an annual movie gala that Thiruvananthapuram hosts.

“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!” Tharoor added.

The southernmost district of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram drew its name from “Tiru-Anantha-Puram”, the city of Lord Anantha.

According to historians, it was earlier known as “Tiruaanandapuram”, “Syanandapuram” and “Sanandapuram”. During the colonial era, it was known as “Trivandrum”.

(With agency inputs)