VIRUDHUNAGAR: Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going - Rita Mae Brown Taking a cue from the American writer, this panchayat president is on a mission; a mission to teach the coming generations the significance of Tamil language. Meet Rajeswari (50), panchayat president of Aathipatti in Aruppukottai, who is carrying out the long lost work of her husband Yogavasudevan (69) - christening streets with Tamil names.
Yogavasudevan was the panchayat president in 2006 when he started christening the ‘nameless’ streets in his panchayat with Tamil names. He had successfully named around 50 streets. However, the work came to a grinding halt after his tenure ended. Rajeswari won as an independent candidate in the panchayat election and assumed office in 2019. Though the old streets have names, those formed as an extension don’t.
“We decided to continue my husband’s work. He helps me with selecting the names. There is a threat that the future generations might lose knowledge of the language. We wanted to take the language to the upcoming generations,” she told TNIE. Thus re-started the mission of christening the streets in Tamil, with names of flowers, months, plants, rivers, rulers and the like.
Vaigarai Veedhi, Sevvaazhai Veedhi, Niraimadhi Veedhi are some of the streets here. The names of the streets have also been added to Google maps to help people navigate with ease. “The streets in a particular area are given only the names of months, and those in another area have been christened only with names of flowers and so on,” she added.