So basically all of this started when I repeatedly began questioning my parents on people after whom places were named. For instance, when on D.V.Gundappa road, I remember asking my parents who D.V.Gundappa was, or while passing by Laxman Rao park, I recollect asking my mother who Laxman Rao was, or similarly who Dr.Omer Sherrif was, and so on. Sometimes, the replies I got were satisfactory, but often not. Hence I felt the need to know more about them. And this is what gave me the idea to do the project that I am trying to do!
Just to give an example of as to how large the scale is, of places named after people, I have taken a snapshot from a small part of Bangalore roughly in and around the region of Gandhi Bazaar, and have circled the places that I have managed to figure out to be the names of people.
Why don’t you take pop quiz: How many people whose names are circled above do you actually know about?
Essentially, many places such as roads parks, junctions etc. have been named after people in order to honour them. But these individuals are not truly honoured by just having a place named after them. And to truly honour them, we must also know about them, and of their contributions to society. And this is the main objective of my idea.
With this teaser, I guess it will not be hard for you to understand the project itself, which I will describe a bit more in the next blog post!