Ripples In A Teacup

This is going to be a short post since I have my board exams coming up, but I can’t not say anything about what I just read - Roald Dahl’s being re-written , with so-called politically incorrect portions modified. I googled a bit and found that there has been talk of re-writing Dr. Seuss and Enid Blyton too. I grew up reading Roald Dahl, Dr. Seuss and Enid Blyton, among others. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Lorax, Famous Five, Malory Towers, I’ve read them, all and many times and I could still read them, though I haven’t read these in a while. Let me say this. Kids aren’t stupid. They are not going to turn racist or be offended by reading stories written by great writers from a different era, having values very different from what we have now. I don’t think it is possible to re-write these great stories without ruining them. It is not a perfect world. Please do let these books be. I don’t think there should be any re-writing at all. That’s my point of vi...

 I recently read about a New Zealand girl of Maori origin being left hurt when staff at her day care shortened her name. Apparently, the educator found “Mahinarangi”, which means “Moon in the sky” to be too tough to pronounce and shortened it to 'Rangi'. Her mother explained Mahinarangi’s name is often mispronounced and mocked by her peers, leaving the young girl “embarrassed” and lacking the confidence to correct anyone. I live in Mumbai and out here, we have people from all over India. Occasionally one encounters a name which is difficult to pronounce, but to be honest, I’ve never heard of someone shortening or changing someone else’s name because it was too hard to pronounce. Indians from the northern and western parts of India tend to have shorter names than those from the southern parts. Also, the languages prevalent in the south are different from languages spoken elsewhere in the country. Northerners find south Indian names to be tongue twisters, but I’ve never heard of ...