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YC Interviews in India

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61–70 of 83 posts

Re: YC Interviews in India

#61
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europeans used the word India long before Britishers colonized India. So it's not really a good analogy. Bombay -> Mumbai is a far better one. However, I do agree that spending taxpayers' money on changing each colonial name is not worth it. 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_for_India

> Europeans used the word India long before Britishers colonized India. So why use a European name, shouldn't it be an "Indian" name.

Bharat(along with India) is a constitutionally recognized name. So it is actually used in official context. But the general convention is India for English, and Bharat for Hindi(and some other languages like Marathi).

> So why use a European name, shouldn't it be an "Indian" name.

It's difficult to answer. I think Indians usually don't have much problem with foreign words. The day-to-day Hindi is somewhat influenced by Persian and even the word for the majority religion (Hindu) has a Persian origin. But in case of English worded cities, it quickly becomes problematic as they were named during the colonial period.

Re: YC Interviews in India

#62
I don't quite understand this move? Was there a big issue with founders getting accepted for an interview but then not being able to travel to the US for the interview?

Re: YC Interviews in India

#64
post #2

Bengalūru, it has been 14 year since the name changed officially would appreciate if people stopped using the anglicized name of our city.

A day in the life of an Indian tech guy - excitingly clicks a HackerNews link relevant to India - "YC Interviews in India"!

Finds a flame war on Bangalore vs Bangaluru - wait what?

True Story!!

Re: YC Interviews in India

#67

Great initiative! This should encourage more Indian/ SE Asian founders to apply, since they no longer have to think about the time spent on the arduous US visa application process - and can instead keep the focus on building their company. Kudos to YC!

YC is still requiring accepted founders to be in California during the in-person program. But yes, they don't have to deal with the US visa process for the Bangalore interviews, which is an improvement.

Re: YC Interviews in India

#68
post #62

I don't quite understand this move? Was there a big issue with founders getting accepted for an interview but then not being able to travel to the US for the interview?

US visas

But for the interview they would just need a travel visa right? If they were accepted they would still need to travel to the US and have the same issue they did prior?

Re: YC Interviews in India

#69
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is the prerogative of the nation and its people to choose official naming for international usage. If India, like Myanmar (formerly Burma) wanted to choose a native name as their English representation through a formal process, it is disrespectful bordering on hostile to ignore that, especially as a foreign entity like YC. Nobody is saying anyone should change any names, but once they have, it is important it is r…

> but once they have, it is important it is respected. No I dont agree, I still call Mumbai as Bombay most of the times because that was the city I grew up in. I think its disrespectful to the people of Bombay/Bangalore that the govt wastes money changing names instead of fixing actual issues

You have said this in 4+ places in this thread. People who have strong connections with the place (similarly with a person who's name has changed) can use their discretion which name to use, if the person in question is alright with either name. However it is inappropriate for an outsider to use an unofficial name or deadname without permission, especially in official context. That's all I have said.

Please stop bringing up taxpayer money, it's not like taxes can only be used for a singular issue at once. I could say the US taxes shouldn't be spending trillions on military before fixing other problems like homelessness in SF, but that's not how taxes or governments work.

Re: YC Interviews in India

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And when you talk (in English or Kannada) about Rome, do you write (and say) 'Roma'? When you talk about Moscow, do you say 'Moskvá'? (Even closer to home, do you say 'naaii dillii'?)

While I agree with you in general, you would have a better case with a different city than New Delhi, because most Indians simply never use the full English name in informal parlance — it's always been 'Dilli' (in Hindi) and/or 'Deli' (in inf. Indian English). In fact, the term (and equivalents of) 'Old Delhi' see more common use than 'New Delhi', largely because the latter is the one most commonly referred to as jus…

Talking with people who live in Delhi (in both English and Hindi), I got the sense that 'dilli' is becoming increasingly rare.

I am overall rather tired of the city-renaming craze. It seems like expensive bike-shedding at best. You end up with ridiculous scenarios like renaming 'Madras' to 'Chennai', where 'Madras' in fact is a native, historic Tamil name for the city, and 'Chennai' is the name of Telugu collaborator with the British.

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