I started this blog with the intention of writing about the bridges in my home district. A sort of value added listing or census was what I had in mind. In fact, it was even named bridgesofalleppeycountry.blogspot.com . I left out the initial "the". But then I realised that I could not stop at that and decided to write about the whole place and shortened the blog URL to just alleppeycountry.blogspot.com .
Many moons ago, when I was still a college student I remember watching a review of a Hollywood movie on the telly. This is the wikipedia article and this is the movie. The movie's name made me realise that we had a lot of bridges - not only in Alleppey Town proper, but in it's outskirts as well. We need them as the whole place is a tangle of canals and rivulets. So much so that the place is even named after these water bodies. The name of the place in the vernacular is 'Alappuzha' which is the shortened form of 'Alayam Puzha' - 'Alayam' meaning 'Home' and 'Puzha' meaning 'Stream' or 'River' - thus giving us "House of Rivers".
The Brits while they ruled us found it difficult to pronounce many nouns. Alleppey is the British modification of Alappuzha. Just like the following examples
I chauvinistically wondered why no Nat-Geo journo came and wrote about the bridges here. I of course, was ignorant about the beautiful covered bridges in Madison County.
With procrastination as my best friend, I set out to right this perceived historical wrong.
I had decided that this task was left to me and that I would someday write this song.
And thus we have this blog.
Many moons ago, when I was still a college student I remember watching a review of a Hollywood movie on the telly. This is the wikipedia article and this is the movie. The movie's name made me realise that we had a lot of bridges - not only in Alleppey Town proper, but in it's outskirts as well. We need them as the whole place is a tangle of canals and rivulets. So much so that the place is even named after these water bodies. The name of the place in the vernacular is 'Alappuzha' which is the shortened form of 'Alayam Puzha' - 'Alayam' meaning 'Home' and 'Puzha' meaning 'Stream' or 'River' - thus giving us "House of Rivers".
The Brits while they ruled us found it difficult to pronounce many nouns. Alleppey is the British modification of Alappuzha. Just like the following examples
| Original Lengthy Indian Name | British Version | New Indian Version |
| Mumba Devi {something} [there is a claim that it's possibly an Anglicized corruption of Mumbai] | Bombay [possibly an Anglicized corruption of Mumbai or perhaps of Bom Baim (“Good Harbour”), supposedly a Portuguese name for the locale] | Mumbai |
| Thiru-Shiva-Periya-Oor | Trichur | Trissur |
| Thiru-Anatha-Padma-Nabha-Puram | Trivandrum | Thiruvananthapuram |
| Kochchi | Cochin | Kochi |
| Bandopadhyay | Bannerjee | depends |
| Chattopadhyay | Chatterjee | depends |
| Shinde | Scindia | depends |
| Nagapur | Nagpore | Nagpur |
| Gheevarugheese | George | depends |
| Bengaval-uru | Bangalore | Bengaḷūru |
I chauvinistically wondered why no Nat-Geo journo came and wrote about the bridges here. I of course, was ignorant about the beautiful covered bridges in Madison County.
With procrastination as my best friend, I set out to right this perceived historical wrong.
I had decided that this task was left to me and that I would someday write this song.
And thus we have this blog.
