Christening the Cyclones

What's in a name? A rose is a rose is a rose, argued Oscar Wilde passionately. But the Indian Met dept seems to disagree , going by the way they have been aggressively naming all depressions / cyclones in the region.

A little bit of Googling (Google search that is) revealed nuggets of information. Check this

- Naming a cyclone gives it a certain recognition as several cyclones find a mention in history because of the large-scale destruction they cause. Assigning a name, rather than a number or the date, makes it easier to track and remember a particular cyclone. Incidentally, the name of a major cyclone is never repeated (is there a dirth of name in the world where 6 billion + people exist)

- The nomenclature practice, prevalent in the West since the beginning of the 20th century, started as late as 2004 in India .

- An international body , Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre, located within the Indian Meteorological Department in Delhi, has the responsibility of christening all cyclones that hit India, Pakistan, Oman, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand in the North Indian Ocean region, every year.

- All storms that hit anywhere in the world, are assigned names by regional meteorological centres in the USA, India, Japan, Australia and Madagascar for their respective areas in the beginning of the year.

- This nomenclature business has an interesting historical context. Hurricanes in the beginning of the century were named after politicians which caused a major row (what other work do polictians have). Then, during World War-II, Army and Navy meteorologists started naming tropical cyclones after their girlfriends and wives which drew severe criticism. In 1979, the US Natural Weather Service and the World Meteorological Organisation developed a systematic way of naming cyclones in the beginning of the year, alternating male and female names, arranged in an alphabetical order.

- Due to multitude of sensitivities of people and religions. it was decided to name cyclones after abstract bodies - Agni”, Vayu, Pyaar and Baaz. Cyclones in this region of the world began to get names from October 2004. .

- 64 names for cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea are ready for "Christening" and will be valid until 2009, after which a fresh list will be drawn up.

- "Baaz" which recently mauled Chennai is the fifth cyclone in the region to be named (though it was the first to get prominence in the country). The first cyclone in the Arabian Sea that formed in 2004 got a name from Bangladesh: Onil. The second cyclone, also in the Arabian Sea, got a name listed by India: Agni. Baaz was an entry from Oman.

Reams of blogspace could be written on the nomenclature subject in the west (check wikipedia).

Yeah, the best piece of news is "Fanoos" let loose of its aggression much before it reached Chennai coast. If only, it had decided to challenge "Baaz", then the city would have been hit really hard. But without any bias, need to mention that the fed govt and corporation machinery were well geared for any eventuality . But then thankfully some expectations are not met in life.