In Chennai, a former Commissioner’s name lives on, in different forms

There is honest error. And there is something called persisting in an honest error either out of ignorance or maverick indifference. One assumes, and fervently hopes, ignorance is the reason Sir Eric Conran-Smith is assuming a nom de guerre at the drop of a quintessentially British bowler hat. 

On a Greater Chennai Corporation name board for a famous road in Gopalapuram, he goes under “Conron Smith”. If disguise is the objective, that is a weak attempt at it. A few paces into this road and a turn later, he gets better at the game, morphing into Kandran Smith, a name board for a lane off Conran Smith Road hilariously carrying ‘Kandran Smith Lane’.