A video of South African cricketers struggling to pronounce the name of the city Thiruvananthapuram has gone viral on social media. The video was shared by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who is a Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram.
In the video, the South African cricketers are asked to pronounce the name of the city by a team member. The players try their best, but most of them struggle to get the pronunciation right. Some of the players even come up with hilarious-sounding words.
Tharoor shared the video with the caption, “The South Africans have arrived in Thiruvananthapuram! But can they tell anyone where they are?”
However, only Lungi Ngidi, Keshav Maharaj, and Kagiso Rabada accurately said the name.
Heinrich Klassen couldn’t say it correctly either, so he went with the city’s ancient name, Trivandrum.
Netizens flooded the comments section with their thoughts, making it a fest for commotion and humor. “I think we should ask people in India who aren’t from Kerala first,” he wrote. To which the Congress leader replied, “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!”
“Trivandrum is the anglicised version of Thiruvananthapuram. Just like they made Cawnpore (Kanpur), Calcutta (Kolkata), etc. As they couldn’t pronounce these names,” another user commented.
A third user remarked, “Even we can’t pronounce that.” “Sir, just a friendly reminder before you hit delete – the name change from Trivandrum to Thiruvananthapuram was a move by the Kerala Government in 1991, and the INC was calling the shots in the state back then. There’s no need to sweep that history under the rug! 😉📜,” a user wrote. “Can’t stop laughing what an accent 🔥,” another one commented. “Services them right for giving the world Labuschagne ! 😄,” another one wrote.
Meanwhile, in August, the Kerala Assembly passed a motion renaming the state “Keralam.”
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