What's in a Re-name?
What's in a name? Much more than the good old bard thought, apparently. Considering the substantial furore caused due to the renaming spree that most cities in our country have had to endure ever since Bombay became Mumbai and Madras was rechristened Chennai, states, cities and towns are competing against each other with a never-before-seen vengeance to out-do each other and have the most number of renamings possible. After all, it was at the tax-payer's expense, and it wasn't like those that proposed the change of name had to make changes on the signboards of establishments, and corresponding changes on company letterheads and all that jazz.
The considerable overhaul that was a byproduct of the renaming process was lost on those that wanted to undertake it, and had that been the case, I am sure the honourable renaming overlords would've been happier with a Bangalore or a Trivandrum, vis-a-vis a Bengaluru or a Thiruvananthapuram.
The small-scale local renaming, such as those that affected Connaught Place and Connaught Circus, with the proposal to rename them after Rajiv and Indira, are the ones that would affect a smaller section of the population, but would cause a substantial amount of mental torture to the poor postman, who was faced with the unenviable task of delivering letters to a Connaught Place one day, and to a Rajiv Chowk on the very next. In the absence of unnecessary training that the poor soul would have to attend in order to get refamiliarized with an already familiar area, his life would've been that much more easier.
Now, as witnessed over the past few days, most cities in Karnataka are to undergo the renaming process, under the pretext of 'restoration of the old-glory' that these cities once had, prior to our country's subjugation to the British Raj. Bangalore becomes Bengaluru, while Mysore is soon to be Mysooru and so on and so forth. Enough has been said in the newspapers about it for me to complicate matters by being redundant.
The very fact that pretty much everyone among the local population refers to these cities by their local names, rather than the anglicised ones, while at the same time, those who are not from the state would refer to the city name by the version familiar to them, regardless of the official name-status conferred upon the place is something that our authorities have been blind to. An exercise in futility, but one they seem to want to go through with, at any cost, regardless.
In my humble opinion, it makes a lot of sense, however to have one road in each city, preferably the arterial road in case of smaller towns, or one of the main roads in case of big cities, to be named after Gandhiji. As a person who has spearheaded our freedom movement, he definitely deserves to be remembered appropriately. It is pitiable though, that these roads named after him are relegated to the short-form reference, and nobody is seen referring to the road as 'Mahatma Gandhi' road, and is instead caught saying 'M.G Road'. Of course, it is easier and more convenient to follow the latter course, rather than expend energy on the use of precious extra syllables that are necessary when mouthing the choicest of invectives when on the road to abuse fellow motorists or to the poor hapless waiter at a restaurant who didn't get your order on time. Although it is unwise to see intent behind other people's honest mistakes, it more often than not ends up being the case.
The renaming spree has swept-over individuals as well. Honestly, renaming is not the exact word for it, respelling is the more apt term that needs to be applied here, if such a word exists. I have probably ranted about it in a previous post, but the extra vowels in a person's name for good luck is the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my entire life, stupider than Linda Goodman's astrology fundaes.
Finally there is something stupider than trying to type-classify people into twelve broad categories based on the time of their birth, and say that if you're a person born under the Aries sign, you will have a receeding hairline or a distended belly when you're 36 years old and all that horseshit. That something stupider is what makes a Sunil into a Suniel and a Ritesh into a Riteish. It would probably be sweet to do something like this for the sake of being 'cool' or fashionable, or for a really arbit reason like 'just because'. But an attempt to rationalize stupidity and make it legitimate just makes these God-forsaken people the object of more ridicule.
Mercifully, when I studied in school, there was no such bullshit, or I would've lost more marks than I did for not having spelt Shooobhaa Dheee or Jaaayyyaalllaallithhaaa correctly, and would've had to repeat classes, while all the retards who would bend over in supplication to the changing new spelling order, the sheep, would go about being rich and married and successful, while I would be the exact opposite. Looks like I managed to delay the inevitable by about eight or nine years, and that was all the delaying that was humanely possible.
One of the main roads in Mysore city, that is just adjacent to the sub-urban bus stand, is to undergo a renaming, if the activists that propose it would have their way. Ever since the road came into existence, it has been referred to as Irwin road, after the British viceroy of the late 20's and early 30s. The road is to be named after Bhagat Singh, and will be referred to as Bhagat Singh road. I personally endorse this, and I think its a brilliant idea. I just hope people don't end up calling it the 'B.S Road', once the proposed renaming goes through.
You know, B.S, like in male-cow effluents. You don't? Ahh, nevermind!
The considerable overhaul that was a byproduct of the renaming process was lost on those that wanted to undertake it, and had that been the case, I am sure the honourable renaming overlords would've been happier with a Bangalore or a Trivandrum, vis-a-vis a Bengaluru or a Thiruvananthapuram.
The small-scale local renaming, such as those that affected Connaught Place and Connaught Circus, with the proposal to rename them after Rajiv and Indira, are the ones that would affect a smaller section of the population, but would cause a substantial amount of mental torture to the poor postman, who was faced with the unenviable task of delivering letters to a Connaught Place one day, and to a Rajiv Chowk on the very next. In the absence of unnecessary training that the poor soul would have to attend in order to get refamiliarized with an already familiar area, his life would've been that much more easier.
Now, as witnessed over the past few days, most cities in Karnataka are to undergo the renaming process, under the pretext of 'restoration of the old-glory' that these cities once had, prior to our country's subjugation to the British Raj. Bangalore becomes Bengaluru, while Mysore is soon to be Mysooru and so on and so forth. Enough has been said in the newspapers about it for me to complicate matters by being redundant.
The very fact that pretty much everyone among the local population refers to these cities by their local names, rather than the anglicised ones, while at the same time, those who are not from the state would refer to the city name by the version familiar to them, regardless of the official name-status conferred upon the place is something that our authorities have been blind to. An exercise in futility, but one they seem to want to go through with, at any cost, regardless.
In my humble opinion, it makes a lot of sense, however to have one road in each city, preferably the arterial road in case of smaller towns, or one of the main roads in case of big cities, to be named after Gandhiji. As a person who has spearheaded our freedom movement, he definitely deserves to be remembered appropriately. It is pitiable though, that these roads named after him are relegated to the short-form reference, and nobody is seen referring to the road as 'Mahatma Gandhi' road, and is instead caught saying 'M.G Road'. Of course, it is easier and more convenient to follow the latter course, rather than expend energy on the use of precious extra syllables that are necessary when mouthing the choicest of invectives when on the road to abuse fellow motorists or to the poor hapless waiter at a restaurant who didn't get your order on time. Although it is unwise to see intent behind other people's honest mistakes, it more often than not ends up being the case.
The renaming spree has swept-over individuals as well. Honestly, renaming is not the exact word for it, respelling is the more apt term that needs to be applied here, if such a word exists. I have probably ranted about it in a previous post, but the extra vowels in a person's name for good luck is the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my entire life, stupider than Linda Goodman's astrology fundaes.
Finally there is something stupider than trying to type-classify people into twelve broad categories based on the time of their birth, and say that if you're a person born under the Aries sign, you will have a receeding hairline or a distended belly when you're 36 years old and all that horseshit. That something stupider is what makes a Sunil into a Suniel and a Ritesh into a Riteish. It would probably be sweet to do something like this for the sake of being 'cool' or fashionable, or for a really arbit reason like 'just because'. But an attempt to rationalize stupidity and make it legitimate just makes these God-forsaken people the object of more ridicule.
Mercifully, when I studied in school, there was no such bullshit, or I would've lost more marks than I did for not having spelt Shooobhaa Dheee or Jaaayyyaalllaallithhaaa correctly, and would've had to repeat classes, while all the retards who would bend over in supplication to the changing new spelling order, the sheep, would go about being rich and married and successful, while I would be the exact opposite. Looks like I managed to delay the inevitable by about eight or nine years, and that was all the delaying that was humanely possible.
One of the main roads in Mysore city, that is just adjacent to the sub-urban bus stand, is to undergo a renaming, if the activists that propose it would have their way. Ever since the road came into existence, it has been referred to as Irwin road, after the British viceroy of the late 20's and early 30s. The road is to be named after Bhagat Singh, and will be referred to as Bhagat Singh road. I personally endorse this, and I think its a brilliant idea. I just hope people don't end up calling it the 'B.S Road', once the proposed renaming goes through.
You know, B.S, like in male-cow effluents. You don't? Ahh, nevermind!
posted by Hari Shenoy @ 11:52 PM
4 Comments:
needlessly long drawn out. i'm sure prof. he man shoe ray, communications prof at IIML will spot at least forty mistakes in this post. thankfully, it is not he reading or commenting. what B.S. i say. good exercise for your fingers, nevertheless. n' for others' ocular muscles. i didn't even smile once while i read this, i'll have you know. stay off the keyboard, dude. or use it only for coding purposes. go improve your handwriting or something
@ Kutty - if the sole purpose of my blogging was to be your personal jester, I presume I would have made attempts to cater towards making you laugh. However, regretfully this was something I just felt like writing about, and so I did. You don't like it, too bad. No apologies tendered but I appreciate your feedback, nevertheless. Just so I know what I have to keep in mind the next time I decide to belt out a 'humorous' post.
oh well i guess it's just 'cuz i've been around you for such a long time. a new reader would definitely ROFLHAO but i know you can do soo much better that's all. the intent of the post is excellent and the humor is top class too, but 50% of it is stuff i keep hearing all the time from you, so it is not new to me anymore. time to reinvent, methinks.
as for mistakes, they aren't really, but it's what the prof ordered :) i complied n' ended up getting good marks. call me a sellout. all long sentences which could be shortened to facilitate ease of reading (by low IQ idiots, nevertheless). overall, it is ok hehe. but 'of rocket science n' shampoo' and that one where you saw the goat tied to the post, were truly brilliant man. i'll never forget it.
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