Only names, and names r all they have to smother our minds

Hi viewers,

One of the most intriguing things to me is the name-changing of places in India. You may find this piece a little outdated, nonetheless worthy of pondering at any time.

The name-changing of cities (especially the mega cities) has found its niche in this dynamic country of ours. Bombay has snowballed into Mumbai to the dismay of the Bombay-ites and others who love the city for being Bombay not MMMMMM....Mumbai. Madras is transitioning into Chennai. Delhi is raring to embrace Hastinapur. Calcutta is still getting a hang of the newly acquired prefix "Kol". IITB has become IITM. IITM got whacked to IITC, and sooner or later IITD will join the ranks with its own alter ego IITH. However, there is a little chance in hell that IITK (as in Kanpur) and other IITK (as in Kharagpur) will obtain this privilege. The reason can be attributed to Kanpur and Kharagpur being kinda low-key in comparison with the above juggernauts, and thus holding little to no political wherewithal to affect the psyche of the biggest democracy in the world we have come to have a love-hate (more love, less hate as always) relation with.

It begs a question: Why in the world would someone even suggest changing names of the places with illustrious history and huge following? This is beyond realm of my thinking and understanding. I would like to entertain a plausible explanation to this frequently-occurring phenomenon unique to our country, if there is one, from anyone that cares.

See u sometime soon.