Naming Neverland

Local trivia (trivium?): The Pune railway station (and the area surrounding it) which we now call "Shivajinagar" was earlier known as "Bhamburda".

While Shivaji got lucky, his son didn't! When a directive was sent a few years back to change the name of the Deccan Gymkhana area to "Sambhajinagar", the local populace simply refused to accept it (and for good reason) and the move died out. Not only had it threatened an expenditure in 6-digit figures, it was pure irritation. Yet the name game continues to be the second favourite game of our politicians after scams!

Last week my quiz partner commented about the importance of naming (and also getting it right), which made me agree. Clichéd as this may sound, politicians as usual have got their priorities wrong. Naming is an issue. Renaming isn't.

Consider the Aundh problem: There was a bridge across the Mula river. Then a new one was made close to it. Reference to them wasn't a problem, they were just 'Old Bridge' and 'New Bridge'. Then one fine day, the old one was demolished to make a new one. So the old one became the new one. The new one (which was now the older one) was still called the 'New Bridge'. The local administration made the smartest move ever and named the newest bridge (which was also the oldest bridge) as "Rajiv Gandhi Bridge". That leaves the erstwhile 'New Bridge' (now the 'Old Bridge') unnamed! [ did I unknowingly set a MENSA puzzle! ;-) ]

The "Deep Bangla Chowk" in Model Colony is another interesting case. It's quite understandable when a chowk is named after a haunted house beside it, but when all places within a 2 km. radius are addressed as 'near Deep Bangla Chowk', you know something is wrong. Pune might not be as lucky as Bangalore, err... Bengaluru with its 'crosses' and 'mains', but a nice, short name for an area wouldn't hurt anyone. But then trust the administration to come up with "Nagarsevak Pramod Mahale Chowk" (with a statue thrown in for good measure).

Whereas in the case of renaming, consider these name changes of some of the major roads in Pune -
Baner Rd. -> Lokahitawadi Gopal Hari Deshmukh Path
FC Rd. -> Gopal Krishna Gokhale Path
Law College Rd. -> Vishnushastri Chiplunkar Path
Pashan Rd. -> Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha Path

And the last I'd seen a Vetaal Baba and the Late Gurubhakt Kondiba Genba Amrale have also been honoured.

I'm now dreading the day they christen the unnamed bridge in Aundh as "Sanjay Gandhi Bridge" or even worse "Sonia Gandhi Bridge" to make the nomenclature cute... :-)