For errors with a touch of creativity, head to ‘Dr.  Basant Road’ and ‘Kandran Smith Lane’

Name boards in Chennai that have been mis-spelt

Changes in street names are often underpinned by an effort to replace what is perceived as “distant” (often erroneously) with that which is seen as “integral”, something that is believed to be an organic part of the landscape. On rare occasions, the two are “reconciled” in a strange manner. Those rare occasions are to be found off Kamarajar Salai in Ice House, and off Conran Smith Road in Gopalapuram.

Off Kamarajar Salai, a Greater Chennai Corporation name board has misspelt Dr. Besant Road as “Dr. Basant Road” which obviously manages an Indian ring to the name without leaving those in the know in no doubt about the personage it refers to.

And Conran Smith Lane, off Conran Smith Road in Gopalapuram, has been misspelt “Kandran Smith Lane” a Greater Chennai Corporation nameboard. “Kandran” does have a local ring to it, doesn’t it? At the time of The Hindu Downtown’s visit to this lane on February 2, 2024, the nameboard seemed to have been uprooted on account of a minor infrastructural work at the spot it stood on, and kept by the side.