In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet , the enmity between the Montague and Capulet families poses insurmountable hurdles to the fulfilment of the love between the Montague young man Romeo and the Capulet young lady Juliet. Hence, Juliet tells Romeo it is his name that is her enemy and asks him: “O, be some other name!/ What’s in a name?” And this little question might well be one of the most quoted Shakespearean sentence.
Taking it out of the context, the question has often been used to imply that there is nothing in a name. But when Shakespeare made Juliet ask the question, he might have only meant to express love in a manner love has never been expressed.
Actually, there is everything in a name. That is why Romeo didn’t change his name though Juliet tells him the following beautiful lines immediately after asking him the famous question: “That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.”
But that doesn’t matter. India should keep its ancient and vibrant culture alive by renaming all the place names that ends ‘bad’ly. We don’t want any more ‘bad’s’ in our country — Faizabad, Allahabad, Hyderabad, Secunderabad. Actually, it is not Faizabad that should be renamed Ayodhya; India the nation should be renamed Ayodhya. Giving the name of the kingdom of Lord Ram to a mere district will be an insult to the kingdom and its ancient ruler.
Some suggestions
The same day Faizabad was renamed Ayodhya, the setting up of an airport named after Lord Ram in Ayodhya, and a medical college in the name of King Dashrath were announced. That is wonderful: the Lord Ram International Airport and the King Dashrath Medical College of Ayodhya!
But I have some suggestions. I hope the rulers would consider what we ordinary citizens have to say while naming the airports and medical colleges. The suitable name for the airport to be built in Faizabad, oh! sorry, Ayodhya, is Jataayu International Airport.
It will be a fitting commemorative gesture to the bird, a staunch devotee of Lord Ram, who tried to stop Ravan from kidnapping Sita and in the ensuing fight, lost its wings and life.
And the most suitable name for the medical college is Hanuman ji Medical College of Ayodhya.
It was Hanuman ji who went for mritasanjeevani and as he forgot the name of the medicinal plant, brought along the whole mountain in order to save Lord Lakshman.
In honouring Jataayu and Hanuman, there is an environmental aspect also.
In this age of global warming and climate change, what we need is recreating the climate akin to that of Ayodhya when Lord Ram ruled Ayodhya aeons ago.
It is only now I feel as Robert Browning felt: “God is in his Heaven and/All’s right with the world.”
lscvsuku@gmail.com
