1 NOVEMBER 2008, Page 28

Name that city

Sir: I don’t know how many Indians A.A. Gill (‘Oh, Kolkata!’, 18 October) spoke to before levelling patronising scorn at those Brits who still insist on calling the former capital of the Raj ‘Calcutta’, but some months back I quoted in your columns the Indian businessman who told me with a twinkle ‘Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata are just for the front of buses — we still call them Bombay, Madras and Calcutta’. If Mr Gill had asked the way to BBK Square, the one-time administrative hub of the Raj, now renamed after the initials of three forgotten local politicians, he might well have met with puzzlement, followed with a smile and ‘Oh, you mean Dalhousie.’

Christopher Booker

Litton, Somerset