There
is a famous quote from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (Act 2,
scene 2), that says: "What's in a name? that which we call a
rose: By any other name would smell as sweet". Part of this
sentence was first used by the author Isaac Asimov to name a short
story written in 1956. I do not know whatever Shakespeare wanted to
convey in his famous quote, but history proves that many a times, a
name has proved to be everything, be it of a person, organization or
even a place.
The
daughter of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira,
married in 1942, a young gentleman born Feroze Jehangir Gandhy to a
Parsi family in Mumbai. His parents, Jehangir Faredoon Gandhy and
Ratimai (formerly Ratimai Commissariat), lived in Mumbai but had
migrated to Mumbai from Bharuch in South Gujarat, where their
ancestral home, which belonged to his grandfather, still exists in
Kotpariwad. Feroze was the youngest of the five children with two
brothers Dorab Gandhy and Faridun Jehangir Gandhy, and two sisters,
Tehmina Kershashp Gandhy and Aloo Gandhy. The point I am trying to
make here is that Feroze Gandhy's family surname was distinctly
different from that of Mahatma Gandhi (Which is a common Gujarathi
Surname.) However down the line, somewhere and at some point of time,
the Gandhy's changed their surname to Gandhi's. There is no point in
elaborating the reasons for this change, because they are too
obvious. I have mentioned this, just to augment support to my
contention that sometimes name is everything.
An
imposing 12 feet high statue of famous Briton, Winston Churchill now
stands on the central green of Parliament Square in London,
overlooking the houses of parliament. He was such a famous man that
hundreds of his portraits and statues must be adorning many places in
Britain. Yet this very statue is always remembered, when we talk
about the man. Reason is pretty simple. It is the place that lends
the aura, befitting the greatness of the man himself.
On
September 11th,
2001, when Al Quaeda terrorists hijacked airliners in US to hit on
specific targets, they selected the targets very carefully. They
could have selected any of the other targets, which were perhaps not
defended at all and which could have caused substantially greater
loss to US. Yet they chose World Trade center in New York, Pentagon
in Washington DC and third target that was selected was White house
itself. With this selection of places, they wanted to challenge US
supremacy in commerce, defence and finally world politics, and the
targets were almost synonymous with that. Such is the power of the
name.
If
there is a place in China that is synonymous with the country itself,
it is the Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It was here that Chairman
Mao, standing on the rostrum above the front entrance to the
Forbidden City, On 1 October 1949, proudly declared the founding of
the People's Republic to a packed and excited audience in the square.
For the Chinese, Tiananmen Square is like Mecca, the holiest place on
Earth. This square however became world famous largely due to a
single event in 1989. On 4th
of June that year, the Chinese government sent in soldiers and tanks
to crush a student-led pro-democracy protest there. It ended with
many people killed and injured.
Tiananmen
Square used to be an open ground and freely accessible from all
sides. On hot and humid summer evenings, Beijing residents would come
and sit on the ground in the square to cool down and many would fly
kites in the square. After 1989, the square has been turned into
something like a fortress. Iron railings have been erected around it
and access has been restricted to four underground tunnels at its
four corners. Security checks are in place to stop any potential
trouble-makers from entering. Closed-circuit TV cameras are installed
in many places for the authorities and police to monitor the square
24/7.
graphic http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-24742810
On
Monday, 28th
of October 2013 a white SUV or Jeep like vehicle crashed into a
bridge in front of the Forbidden City in the Tiananmen square. The
vehicle then crashed in a crowd and burst into flames. Two bystanders
died on spot and 38 people were injured. Police say that the vehicle
had a container for petrol, two knives and what they describe as a
flag with extremist religious slogans on it. They added that the
car's number plates were registered in Xinjiang province.
According
to the police, the crash was not an accident but a terrorist attack
by Uighur extremists from the Xinjiang region and have started a man
hunt for suspects. It is still not known for sure,whether it was an
accident or a desperate attempt to make some sort of political
statement. If it was really a terrorist attack, it was a very minor
one considering extensive damages such attacks have caused in other
parts of the world. However the crash has touched a raw nerve in
China just because the place, where it has happened was none other
but Tiananmen square itself. Suppose this would have happened in some
other city, say Shanghai or Xian, it would have been probably treated
as a minor incident and treated by police accordingly. Just because
it happened in Tiananmen square, it has been publicized on national
and International media.
Do you
see, what I mean? The name of the place is everything.
1st
October 2013
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