New Delhi, Feb. 24 -- The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to change the name of Kerala to Keralam, prompting a witty reaction from Shashi Tharoor, the Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram, who quipped: "What happens to terms Keralite, Keralan?"

Senior Congress leader Tharoor responded to the change with a pun, wondering what Anglophones would now call people living in the southern state.

"All to the good, no doubt, but a small linguistic question for the Anglophones among us: what happens now to the terms 'Keralite' and 'Keralan' for the denizens of the new 'Keralam'? 'Keralamite' sounds like a microbe and 'Keralamian' like a rare earth mineral.! @CMOKerala might want to launch a competition for new terms resulting ...