I’ve been wondering, are there any Indian dopers here? Well ok, not necessarily Indian, but certainly residing somewhere in this country…
So far, I know there’s xash in Bombay, and me in Poona (not that far away from Bombay)…
[big booming voice]
Is there anybody (else) out here?
[/big booming voice]
I’m an ABCD residing in Chicago with family in Pune (and Nagpur, Bilaspur, Delhi, Mumbai, downstate Illinois and Northern California). Sorry.
Hey I’m from Bombay. I actually thought about posting a similar thread but never got around doing it.
“ABCD”?
Sunspace: ABCD = American Born Confused Desi. Desi just means “Indian.” The term is semi-derogatory (although, similar to jeevmon, I’ve been known to call myself one) referring, obviously, to Indians born in the US. It’s a derivative of ABC, which is “American Born Chinese.”
On a related note: jeevmon, I take it you’re Marathi? My dad’s family is from Solapur (although most of them are in Pune now).
Yes, though I don’t think I’ve ever been to Solapur.
Thanks! 
I have been in Houston, TX for the past couple of years, and been in India all my life before that . I have been a die hard SDMB lurker for the past years atleast.
cheers
I live in Liverpool, but I’m Indian. Desi and confused to the core.
loneraven: But BBCD just doesn’t have the same ring to it!
(woo! my first drive by post, I think)
Me too!! I’ve been thinking about it for several months now - even discussed it with xash some time ago…
Anyways, whereabouts in Bombay (don’t you just hate Mumbai?!) are you? I’m coming to town next weekend, so maybe a little mini Bombay-Dopefest could be organised?!
Incidentally, I’m from Bombay too…
And so am I
Okay, I’m not Indian, but a question: What are you confused about?
Was the name changed to a different word? Or is it a reflection of different dialects (and, if the latter, did the locals win or some powerful outside group)?
Well, the “Confused” part is about simultaneously living two difference cultures, in this case Indian and American, and not being able to identify completely with either.
Parents of an ABCD would have grown up in India with a specific set of values, traditions, beliefs, etc. They come to the States to work, and end up staying there. They have kids, and naturally want to bring them up with the same set of values and belief systems that they have.
But the kids aren’t just living with their parents. They go to American schools, hang out with other American kids, and imbibe parts of the American culture too. Kinda like a neither-here-nor-there syndrome. And this stays with them even as adults. It shows up especially when they come down to India for a holiday (from my experience). Back me up, ABCDs
And regarding Bombay and Mumbai. Mumbai was the name of this little village which existed a few hundred years ago, named after the local goddess Mumbadevi. Then the Brits came, Mumbai turned into Bombay because they had difficulty pronouncing the former, and well, the village kinda grew! That’s history. We Bombayites grew up loving the city, and even it’s name.
And then one fine day, a political party officially changed the name back to it’s original one. Their reason - the Brits left 50 years ago, but we’re still using their names. So they changed the name of Bombay. They didn’t just stop at that - a name changing spree began, and roads, museums, airports, railway stations all had their names changed!!
And we Bombayites just hate that. Officially, it’s now called Mumbai, but most Bombayites still call the city Bombay. What really rankles is that there were, and still are, a whole of lot of more important things that our representatives in government need to do for the city, but all they could think of was changing names. :mad:
Gotta mention though, locals (people from the state of Maharashtra, of which Bombay is the capital) always have called the city Mumbai. But since Bombay has as many locals as it has people from the rest of the country, you have an equal number of people using both names. Which, quite frankly, is exactly the way things were before the name was changed.
GO BOMBAY!!!
Wow!! I’m still pretty pissed about it, 7 years after it happened!!
gouda: I’ll bet you’re pissed that they renamed VT[sup]1[/sup] too, eh? 
And, for a non-ABCD, you’ve hit the nail on the head!
1: Victoria Terminal, the largest (?) railway station in Bombay and one of the four termination points for various railroads that end in Bombay.
Everyone still calls it VT anyway.
Good summary, gouda. I’m a ‘local’, as you called it, but I prefer to call it Bombay too. Just a couple of points though. The name Bombay supposedly came from British mangling of the Portuguese name (Bom Baia). And though you probably know it, it wasn’t originally a village, it was seven islands.
All the renaming was done by a local right wing party (called the Shiv Sena), which came to power in Maharashtra a few years ago, in a coalition with the BJP. It didn’t do them much good, as they lost the subsequent election and are currently in the opposition. I guess that shows you what the Bombayites felt about the renaming ;).
Here’s a short history of Bombay, which explains how the city is so cosmopolitan today.
So, any more resident Indians here?
Great link, sc913. I wasn’t aware of the Bom Bahia angle!
And yeah, I still call it VT too. And Sahar Airport. And he Prince of Wales Museum. And…
Well, I’ll back you up on the ABCD stuff. But as far as Mumbai/ Bombay is concerned, I remember growing up that everyone in my family (Marathi speakers one and all) called it Mumbai. I don’t think I ever heard it called Bombay except by English speakers or when a Marathi speaker switched to English. So, for me, switching the name from Bombay to Mumbai was just switching it back to a name that, for me, was what the city had always been called.