Bummer of a name

IT WAS hailed as ' a sauce to change the way people make curry' - until its makers found out they had called it 'arse'.

Sharwood's named the new range 'Bundh', without realising what the word could mean in Punjabi.

The launch was backed with a £6million campaign devised by the Labour Party's preferred advertising agency, TBWA.

Not surprisingly, the gaffe was spotted by Punjabi speakers, some of whom called to point out the error.

But Sharwood's vowed yesterday to stick to its guns, pointing out that the name was suggested by a senior chef who is Punjabi.

A spokeswoman admitted 'bundh' was close to the word for 'arse' but spelt and pronounced differently.

She said: 'Bundh, meaning closed, brilliantly describes the process in traditional Mughlai cuisine, in which meat and spices are cooked slowly in a sealed pot.

'We would be dismayed if anyone was troubled by the name. We believe that, once they understand the background to it, they will agree it is miles apart from the Punjabi word that is similar.'

Pritpal Manku, a lecturer at Leeds University, said context was everything in Punjabi.

'Bundh can mean arse if the stress is on the "d",' he added. 'It is a bit careless but I don't think it should cause too much of a fuss as, in Hindi, it means to "merge two things together".'

Other Punjabi speakers pointed out James Bond's surname could also be mispronounced to mean arse.