What's Badminton called in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam?

 Badminton, what is it called in Indian languages?

Badminton is just written or used as is in Indic scripts when it is to be mentioned by Indian fans and media. Badminton is the most played sport in India, courts are never empty, booking for the next few months has been blocked by regular badminton enthusiasts, morning and evening alike. New courts are sprouting up with well known badminton players' names, our players are winning tournaments, championships and tours, new talent is sprouting every other year. Seems like badminton has turned a new leaf in India, though it took a while. Now comes some hard hitting questions that I thought long and hard about...what is it called in my language? Are there terminologies that I can use to describe badminton to the people of my land in our language? How can I make badminton inclusive to my language?

 Badminton has some native names in some languages, it is called "Federball" in German, "Bulu tangkis" in Indonesian, "Sulkapallo" in Finnish, "Yǔmáoqiú" in Chinese then why is there not a name that we can identify with in our Indian languages? A game that has its roots in Pune, does not have a name in Indian languages, a little ironic don't you think? 

 Well here is an opportunity available to me, and I am taking it. There are a lot of terms in badminton which cannot be covered in one single article, but we have to start somewhere and I want to name badminton in my language and a few other Indian languages that I am familiar with. As of the publication time and date of this Article, I am going to refer badminton as follows whenever I talk about it:

In Telugu: రెక్కలీ(Rekkali)

In Kannada: ಚಿರೆಕ್ಕ(Chirekka)

In Tamil: இறக்கைசி(Irakkaisi)

In Malayalam: ചെചിറക്(Chechiraka)

In Hindi belt: पंखुड़ी(Pankhudi)

I gave it a lot of thought, it should be small with less syllables, easy to relate to and a term one can relate to and become familiar with easily. I hope People resonate with these names and use them freely thus integrating and destigmatizing people who use native languages to the beautiful sport of badminton. I understand that something like this coming from an organization like BAI would be more befitting, but at the core, badminton community owns the identity of the sport and big organizations may not create an organic growth, It needs to come from us, who play it, watch it and revel in it. I hope this small step forward will propel the badminton sport further in India, which might lead to better visibility, coverage and branding thus propagating and monetizing the sport efficiently. 

 Thank you for reading my small article, I will come back soon with my next article about something fun, something badminton. 

P.S: Congratulations to Indian MD pair , Satwik and Chirag on Winning the French Open, after Partho and Vikram way back in 83' and Sankar for winning Silver medal in JWC. I guess 1983 was big for Indian Badminton too!   

P.P.S: Looking forward to Saarbrücken Open(Hylo open) Best of results to the Indian contingent!