In 1991, Jeff and I traveled to Budapest, just after Hungary came out from under the USSR's thumb. No one spoke a word of English. My French and Spanish were of no use. Cab drivers didn't even know the English word "hotel." So we relied heavily on a city map and our walking shoes to get us around. The problem was, we could never pinpoint our location on the map. We were sure we were standing in front of a certain landmark, but the street name never matched the map. Perpetually lost with no one to ask for help, we took to wandering aimlessly around the city -- stumbling on interesting, albeit, decaying points of interest like the zoo and a palace, and marveling at bullet damage still evident on building facades from World War II and various political uprisings. It wasn't until our visit was almost over that our friend, Rob Bata, who'd been raised there, explained to us that the reason our map was of no use was because the streets all over Budapest were being rapidly renamed to purge all memories of communist repression. Even if the maps were being updated, they'd have to be re-printed almost daily, since the transformation of the city was happening, literally, overnight.
So what's the point? Well, India has recently undergone an overhaul of its city names and nothing is familiar anymore, if it ever was familiar to a foreigner in the first place. Fortunately, the maps seem to be up to date. But the people haven't always conformed. Some still call Mumbai, Bombay and Kolkata, Calcutta, Chennai, Madras. I'm sure in a few years the new names will fly off our tongues, the same way Beijing and Sri Lanka and Tanzania are the new norm. But it has already been 15 years since Mumbai and Chennai were introduced and almost 10 since Calcutta, so the process of undoing Anglicanization is a long one. For all we know, New York City is really Mannahatta again, but most of us just didn't get that memo. Comments are closed.
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