Madras Bombay Calcutta Bangalore

I still refer to these cities as they were and knew them as. There's a difference though.

The respective governments changed their names to 'give them their original' names. It has more to do politically than anything else, it sure is questionable as they should be known as Chennapattanam and Kolikata(or Kalikata) and Bendakaluru.

I do not feel outraged by the change in name; changing Tanjore to Thanjavur and Mysore to Mysuru makes more sense, but since the previous cities were 'named' by the very people who made them what they are today, from mere villages to major power centres, it's not a crime to retain those names.

Anyway, officially these are to be called Chennai and Mumbai and Kolkata and Bengaluru, but I will still refer to these by their old names. In private that is. Publicly they should be known by their official names; but otherwise I prefer to call them by their old names.

In family and private circles calling a friend by his nickname is common practice; that is why Madras will always be Madras and Bangalore Bangalore.

At the same time, each time CNN or BBC refer to Madras or Bombay or Calcutta, it angers me, because sometimes they do not even mention that the name has changed. It does feel odd for them to mention Bengaluru, but still, that is what it should be called because it's nameplate says so. Sigh. The mentioned media outlets are perennial defaulters, however I think it will be a while before Bangalore will change even in the national media.

On a similar note, I remember my multi-lingual maternal grandmother(English, Tamil, Kannada, some Hindi and Telugu) writing letters for an inopportunistic person - who gave the addressee to be residing in 'Madras Presidency'. This happened about 10 years back. Even today, at my place, daily labourers who are refugees from Sri Lanka are referred to be from Ceylon for all purposes.
Maybe it's just that old habits die hard.