Come this Wednesday, Nov. 1, Bangalore will officially change its name to Bengaluru (see Week in Review, page 2). It's part of a gradual movement in some Indian cities to revert to more authentically Indian (less Western) names. And it's savvy rebranding at a time when the original has become an unflattering verb in the West. To "get Bangalored" means to get offshored (or, on the consumer side, to have your DSL accidentally disconnected during a service phone call).

We've seen worse branding efforts. Infineon seemed silly until Renesas came along, but then that was displaced by Qimonda. They all made ON Semiconductor sound brilliant by comparison.

According to folklore, the name Bengaluru has its origins in the tale of a prince who was offered boiled beans at a village woman's hut after a day of hunting. (The hunt must not have gone well.) In gratitude, the prince renamed the site Benda Kalu Uru in honor of the meal.

Does the change matter? It does to a lot of Indians in the state of Karnataka, of which Bangalore/Bengaluru is the capital. It won't in the States; most Americans can't even find Washington, D.C., on a map, much less India.

The real question is whether the name change will solve the city's woeful infrastructure problems. If not, then "getting Bengaluru'ed" could become a metaphor for being rendered immobile.