Old is gold when it comes to renamed city streets

RANCHI: What's there in a name? William Shakespeare would say 'a rose by any other name would smell as sweet'.
And Ranchiites would reply, 'a new name does not change the roads in the city'.
True indeed. So even after renaming of several streets and squares after great personalities, residents tend to use the old ones as in most cases they do not know about the change or are comfortable with simple names.
City's busy Abdul Hamid Mir Chowk is popularly known as Kantatoli Chowk. When asked, Md. Abdul, a shopkeeper, said on Tuesday, "First of all I am unaware of this fact, and second, I would say short is simple. People don't have time to take long names of a street. The idea to name a square or a street after somebody is a waste of time ."
On the other hand the city's lifeline, Mahatma Gandhi Road, is popularly known as Main Road. Not even a single shop adjacent to the path writes M G Road on its board or banner. Residents are so used to referring to it as Main Road that they have forgotten what its real name is.
Rahul Kumar, a local, was surprised to know about the change. "Nobody ever told me this is Mahatma Gandhi Road, how am I supposed to know?"
Similarly, Dr Camil Bulke Path is known as as Purulia Road, Agrasen Chowk as Lalpur Chowk, Karpuri Thakur Chowk as Hinoo, Albert Ekka Chowk as Firayalal and Swami Vivekananda Road as Circular Road.