Waiting for the Bay of Bongo

Banglar Bagh

Just learned that the state of West Bengal is to be renamed Paschimbanga. Paschimbanga (sometimes Paschim Bangla), which is a literal translation of West Bengal, is a name Bengalis use frequently; and often in a formal conversation. But West Bengal had been equally popular. Years ago I found Kolkata (the capital of West Bengal) taking over from Calcutta, on such a rainy evening, but I like to stick to the old name still. 


Those who supported the change of name have solid logic on their side and sentiments that run deep and wide. I too share some of those and am not too bothered this way or that. But I am quite intrigued by the possibilities, if the rechristening spirit travels further to take into its fold the The Royal Bengal Tiger or perhaps the Bay of Bengal. We already have Bongo-Upasagar for the bay but what about the striped king of the Sunderbans? Will he become the Royal Bongiyo Baghro or something weirder still? The Bay of Bongo sounds musical and as for the tiger we can always slip back to the familiar `Banglar Bagh' (literally the Bengal tiger).


Yet to those who have the power to decide such things I have a small list of street names from Calcutta that I would never like changed. And I have no good logic (see brackets) but just a mixed bag of sentiments to support my case:

Crooked Lane (Baker Street for my private eye*) 

Goomghar Lane (if you read Bengali you know)

Rosemary Lane (Polanski ... Polanski)

Bonduk Gully (everyone agrees?)

Lovelock Place (rhymes with Havelock Ellis)

Bellilious Lane (ring of the rebellious)

Indian Mirror Street (magically real)

Amratalla Lane (memories of a Sukumar Roy poem)

Waterloo Street (well ...read the first post of this blog)

Do share your wishlist in the comments thread. 


*  Appears in my long story `Asha Masala Bhandar' in the Bengali print magazine Bhashabandhan (May, 2011).
Image courtesy Wikipedia.