Whats in a Name?
People have always attached a lot of importance to their names: how it should be spelled, said out loud, and so on. People in power have attempted in many ways to immortalize their names: Murshidabad, Aurangabad, and so on. Markets, monuments, buildings, airports have been named after famous persons. But everywhere, there has been a noun associated with the name to complete the nomenclature. For example, we have Dalhousie Square, Connaught Place, Eden Garden, Netaji Subhas Bose Road, Aurangzeb Marg, Qutb Minar, Nizam Palace, and so on. In all these examples, the name makes it unambiguously clear as to what is being referred to, whether a building or a road or anything else.
Kolkata has taken the lead to erase such distinctions. Perhaps in their own wisdom, the authorities have decided that enough is enough and a name is a name is a name. So what if the proper noun refers to a person or a place? In the beginning, the streets of Kolkata were renamed after persons and most of the roads became 'saranis'. Not Lenin Road, or Lenin Street, or Lenin Marg, or Lenin Path, but Lenin Sarani. Each street was supposed to jog our memories about some historic figure. That complete, the next logical step was to rename railway stations. So now if you want to take a Metro ride to Tollygunge, you can't. Instead, you have to go to Mahanayak Uttam Kumar. And of course, he being one of the great actors of Bengal, taking up the role of a railway station (after his mortal era) is but natural! Naturally, you cannot meet him but you can walk on him (or on his platforms to be correct).
In our school we had learnt that Kavi Nazrul Islam was a great poet. Now we have to learn afresh that Kabi Nazrul is a station. You have to buy a ticket to Kabi Nazrul if you want to reach Garia. To me, it seems to be a very peculiar way to honor the legends.
Perhaps the next step will be to name railway stations after political leaders. There are a lot of railway stations in India and a large number of politicians. Just think of the total number of seats in all the state assemblies and our Parliament. Every term, many new members enter the legislative bodies. Some calculations are in order to find out when we will run out stations to name after our politicians.
Instead of asking 'Whats in a name?', on successful completion of this mega naming project, people will ask "Where's your name?'
Kolkata has taken the lead to erase such distinctions. Perhaps in their own wisdom, the authorities have decided that enough is enough and a name is a name is a name. So what if the proper noun refers to a person or a place? In the beginning, the streets of Kolkata were renamed after persons and most of the roads became 'saranis'. Not Lenin Road, or Lenin Street, or Lenin Marg, or Lenin Path, but Lenin Sarani. Each street was supposed to jog our memories about some historic figure. That complete, the next logical step was to rename railway stations. So now if you want to take a Metro ride to Tollygunge, you can't. Instead, you have to go to Mahanayak Uttam Kumar. And of course, he being one of the great actors of Bengal, taking up the role of a railway station (after his mortal era) is but natural! Naturally, you cannot meet him but you can walk on him (or on his platforms to be correct).
In our school we had learnt that Kavi Nazrul Islam was a great poet. Now we have to learn afresh that Kabi Nazrul is a station. You have to buy a ticket to Kabi Nazrul if you want to reach Garia. To me, it seems to be a very peculiar way to honor the legends.
Perhaps the next step will be to name railway stations after political leaders. There are a lot of railway stations in India and a large number of politicians. Just think of the total number of seats in all the state assemblies and our Parliament. Every term, many new members enter the legislative bodies. Some calculations are in order to find out when we will run out stations to name after our politicians.
Instead of asking 'Whats in a name?', on successful completion of this mega naming project, people will ask "Where's your name?'
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