Whats in the Tongue - II

Being around in many cities and roaming about, tends to give so much understanding about each of them that cant be explained but only can be experienced. Every city, town, state, country has a flavour of its own. very similar to a person, an aura that it carries. This aura is predominantly made up by the people who live there. and being in such places you also come to notice certain aspects which are distinct. One example that i can think about is the way we explain junction points in a city which are controlled by traffic signal.
In Chennai this point is called as "Signal". Colloquially, "Ingernthu rendavauthu signallae left eduthaa kadaisi building". In Mumbai it is generally referred to as "Naaka". Naaka actually means a junction point of 4 roads and not a traffic signal controlled road, but I have noticed it is used that way none the less. In Calcutta, the same is called an "Island". U can imagine the reaction of a person who wishes to go to a place called Salt Lake in Kolkata and when asked for directions has been told to cross two islands, take left and take right on the third island. In New Delhi this junction is referred to as "Red Light". they could have called it "Green Light" or "Orange Light", but they chose to call it "Red Light" for some reason. I really was surprised the first time someone told me, "Bridge ke neeche se jao toh teesre red light mein left lena". I knew that Delhi didn't have a good repute in terms of how safe it was for the fairer sex, but imagining a how "Red Light Areas" could be so openly discussed about was kind of startling, until i came to know what it really meant, that is.
In Dubai the same junction is called as an "Ishaara". Its origins are thought to be from the vast expat population of Pakistanis that this country seems to attract.

Language is just one of those things that makes a city keep its aura.