Batman Avenue? A funny name of a street

19th December 2008

Batman Avenue? Strange name for a road. Let's see if I can find a Superman Street or Spiderman Lane as well. This is what I thought when I first saw the sign for Batman Avenue in Melbourne. Later I realised it was not named after the caped crusader who also goes by the name of Bruce Wayne but after John Batman-the man who found Melbourne. Actually he was the first guy who settled in Melbourne and founded Victoria. The life and ideas of people at that time must have been very different. I would like to be away from the maddening crowd of the city but only momentarily. I would like to settle down in a place that is a little further away from the city but only if there are already some people in it. I can't understand the reason why someone would like to go so far away from others and that too when staying in touch with others was not as easy as it is now...may be that is the reason.

One of my colleague in Melbourne - Michael told me that when he landed in Melbourne he observed the weather and the plenty of rain fall and said "This is a fine place for a village."

As a child too I had a similar doubt about a raod named after Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, a freeopm fighter and later a minister in independent India. I used to think that the road "Rafi Marg" is named after the only Rafi I knew at that time - Mohammad Rafi - a play back singer in Hindi cinema and I used to wonder if there is a road named after him, how come there isn't one named after Mukesh, Kishore Kumar or K L Sehgal. Being the kind of the kid I was, I kept wondering about it rather than asking somone else till one day when I finally took the risk of looking stupid and asked my brother who clarified the whole thing for me.

A bit more about this Batman, this is a gift from "kids in my office" to Manu on his fourth birthday.