Name Game

What’s in a name ? We have heard this so often ever since Shakespeare made this statement immortal. However when we look around us in this country , we see that there is so much in a name !

Our politicians seem to think that all is in a name. So there is our great name game which goes on. As soon as a party comes to power and soon after they stop ranting about the great democracy that has propelled them to power, starts their first job. Which all names that can be changed and should be immediately changed becomes the priority number one.

Be it roads, be it airports, railway stations , street corners, townships, towns , cities, nothing escapes their attention. Hours are spent debating on assemblies and houses of parliaments as to what should be the apt name. Some of the debates border on fist fights to get the names of their heroes immortalized.

When I come to think of it, I find that not only is the name changed, it is also another agenda to make the name as long as possible. So apart from the small name that was given by the great soul’s parents , we have additions at the end and salutations at the start. So the name of a road which is around one and half kilometers long can start with salutations which are around three hundred metres long.The longer the name, the more number of alphabets that have to be inscribed on the plank the bigger is the achievements of our great politicians, the bigger is the pat on the back from the party high command.

The name changes with grand fanfare, one morning is devoted to a function at the appropriate place and our press laps up all the bytes. Then what happens ? The road, street , rail station or airport whatever it is remains in the same mess that it originally was. If that is so then the great soul on whose name the change happened is lucky. And so are we. What actually happens is that the situation worsens, the place is messier and is on the same downward spiral that it was without a name or the name of some British which we wanted to throw away as vestiges of the past.

Sometimes I have wondered, why do these politicians bicker about their favourite heroes not being covered in this name game and fight for hours in parliament or assembly. Why don’t they start naming the potholes on the roads of Mumbai to start with ? Then they can go to the next four cities and so on and on. It can create huge employment that will put all the earlier Rojgari Yoganas to shame. Imagine, every pothole named after a blessed soul. The politicians can have potholes named after their kith and kin who have long since left this world of potholes. Anyway the potholes are there perennially so they can actually have a small barricade around each and put a name plank.

And the ultimate test of our car drivers is to go round each and every one of them to reach their destination. It will be really the The Long and

Winding Road

!