Bangalore was the name of a torpedo used for `clearing the beaches during the D-Day landings,’ says www.firstworldwar.com. "Designed by Captain McClintock (of the British Army Bengal, Bombay and Madras Sappers and Miners) in 1912, so-called Bangalore Torpedoes were used as a means of exploding booby traps and barricades left over from the Boer and Russo-Japanese Wars." As a neologism, `to be Bangalored’ means, to suffer "a layoff, often systemic, and usually due to corporate outsourcing of the business function to lower wage economies," says Wikipedia. It’s unusual for a place name to become a verb, points out Michael Quinion on www.worldwidewords.org. An exception is `Shanghaied’, known since about 1870, "at first in the sense of kidnapping a person to make up the crew numbers on a ship, but now more generally to be forced into doing something against one’s will." Bangalored is `a uni-dimensional word born out of hate and fear,’ writes Eshwar Sundaresan in his book BangaloredThe book is `the expat story’, born out of the author’s interactions with foreigners in Bangalore. Beginwith Thomas van Berckel, the Dutchman who broke his toe on M.G. Road, and leaves Kamanahalli with an Indian wife. Read the `Flemish tale’ about Daniel, an ex `vice-president of international finance’, doing translations. And meet Majed A.A. Sabha of Palestine as `founding trustee of the Brindavan College’. Interspersed are the author’s views about the people. That Kannadigas are "normally the most peaceful and the least vociferous among Indians," though "catching up with an unruly world". Indo-expat marriages are no different from any other marriage, writes Sundaresan; "relationships fail chiefly because of incompatibilities between the partners." Take a dip into `statistics’, a chapter with data from the Foreigners’ Registration Office. In 2004, the US headed the list with 1,600 registrations. Sri Lanka logged in almost a half of that. Iran and Bangladesh were in the next two ranks. "Many foreigners are opting to stay back in Bangalore," says Assistant Commissioner of Police Jagadeesh Prasad. "They’re quite happy except for the traffic. They get a handsome salary, the weather is lovely and the people friendly. What more could they ask for." To know how the city is `winning hearts’, read about Narayana Hrudayalaya (NH), which treated 62 patients from Pakistan before Noor and 212 since! "95 per cent of all cardiac cases in Bangladesh come to NH." The book ends narrating "an unusual request on an FM radio channel" — from an expat on his way back home, calling from the airport to request a Hindi song. "He said he would certainly be coming back, but meanwhile could the song be dedicated to the friends he had made in the city?"
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