Saturday, September 20, 2008

Either way, it's ok?

Someone had asked if the change in the city's name from Madras to Chennai has sunk in deeply enough. There can't be a short answer to that; there are many institutions in the city which, for various reasons, continue to carry 'Madras' as part of their name. One such institution is the University of Madras, which recently celebrated its 150th anniversary. Hopefully, it will continue to retain the same name for a very, very long time. I believe it must - and so must the other institutions, else we run the risk of forgetting the Madras that was for the Chennai that will be.

Beginning with the Senate House, the University today occupies several buildings along the Marina. Even though it is very clear what it's name is, there are many who are confused about it - thankfully, the word 'Chennai' does not enter into the confusion. Several people refer to it as Madras University, which probably gets the point across, but is an obvious misnomer - or am I being too exact about it?


It seems to me that the person in charge of putting this fence around one of the University's buildings also had a similar confusion. Luckily for him, he could play it safe and cover both options by just turning a few of the grills around!


2 comments:

LVISS said...

Now that u have highlighted it the change may come soon.

Shantaram said...

>> Ravindran>> Should it? I think it should remain University of Madras...