"I" is Eye?

For the first blog title is a bit cryptic. Well, I think I will get better once I learn the ropes of blogging. The tussle for pronunciation has been my childhood buddy. This one for sure I need to think louder. I could deal with the situation when my wife pointed out that I don't pronounce "Queens" properly. It's said as "Kweeeens" and not Quins, the stress has to be on the 'eeee'. I never before thought about this, it didn't really matter or shall I say people around never noticed the subtlety. My wife's virtue of keen observation has been a double-edged sword for me. I have to say "Fo" and not my usual "Four" :-), more than accent its the technicality that I have to agree to. My double checks on www.webster.com for pronunciation have never been to what I would want it to be.

What aggravated the agitation was when I heard my friend say "phi de lity" when trying to say Fidelity investments. Root is Raaoute, Iraq is Eye-Raq or Iran is Eye-ran and multi is mul-tie, I can see the trend. Dude, in US they spell the alphabet AS IS. Coming from a country that Brits ruled for 200 yrs and having lived (survived?) there for almost 22 yrs, it's not very easy to comprehend these differences and even harder it is to fluent the American accent. [An expecting Mom in India even sneezes in British English! Bro it's colour and not color for us.]
Well, coming back to the spelling-the-alphabet-as-is game, I wonder is it Philadelphia or fyla-delphia. If Iowa is Eye-O-Waa, then Florida must be flo-ryda, or Indiana must be Eye-in-Diana??
wait... you mean India is Eye-inDia.??? Whoaaaaa...
Wherez the rope that can squeeze my throat :-)

And this one is a winner (w-eye-ner?) -

M-eye-chael Jordan of Un-eye-ted States of Amer-eye-ca eye-s a basketball w-eye-zard

OR

M-ee-chael Jordan of Un-ee-ted States of Amer-ee-ca ee-s a basketball w-ee-zard.

-Pankya