Renaming Mania


Did you hear that Britain decided to rename Big Ben in honour of their Queen a few weeks back? Really, renaming such a famous monument, that’s the best they could do for their beloved Queen-for-all-time? Many Brits opposed the idea saying the clock tower was too famous to rename. I liked the idiotic government answer to that point: they said they realized most people would still call it Big Ben, and they were fine with that, but the official name would be changed anyway.

Wow! And I thought this madness to rename famous monuments and places is an Indian habit. I guess the Brits copied us on this one: the Congress renamed Connaught Place in honour of their king, Rajiv Gandhi, even though everyone continues to call it by the old name.

On a somewhat parallel note, I found this blog by Jeff Jarvis wondering whether the smartphone should be called a phone at all amusing. The trigger for his question was that in UK, they did a study to see what people use their smartphones for. And phone calls came a distant 5th on that list. The first four activities were browsing the Net, social networking (aka Facebook and Twitter), listening to music and playing games. Jarvis asked readers for an alternative name via (no surprise) social networking sites. The answer he liked best? A term that many Germans use, “Händy”. And why did he like that term?
““Handy” is wonderful because the device fits in the hand. But even when it won’t — when Siri or Glass replace it — the word still works because it is, indeed, handy.”

Oh, I also loved the way Jarvis closed that blog (he was writing this on the 5th anniversary of the launch of the iPhone):
“iHändy. Sounds like iCandy. It works, ja?”

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