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 c