Multilingualism can be magical if it's error-free

New Delhi signboards with distorted street names may get a few laughs but they also signal a petty negligence of India's multilingual heritage-an asset that should not be trifled with

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Google Maps is our navigator-in-chief today. Buckle up, key in the destination, and off you go on the fastest route. It errs now and then, of course, so it helps to keep an eye out for signposts of street names. For those of us who must brave the traffic of New Delhi, the error rate of these seems no better. Soon after a foreign diplomat pointed out a misspelt 'Singapore' on a signboard, a Hindustan Times report this week gave us the low-down on wanton distortions of street names displayed in Gurmukhi, a Punjabi script, on boards installed by the New Delhi Municipal Council. Akbah Hoad' for Akbar Road might get a laugh or two, but mis-spelling 'Singh' in Gurmukhi for Jai Singh Road is about as glaring as it can get. That our capital city has a fourscript norm-English, Devanagri, Gurmukhi and Urdu-to mark out its streets, of course, is just how it should be. It's a practical matter, above all, given its diverse readers. In this, it has always scored well over its suburb Gurugram, for example, where the Haryana Urban Development Authority had an English-only bo