KARIMNAGAR : In Karimnagar’s 8th division, where time moves forward but paperwork does not, a colony of about 2,000 residents has spent the last four decades politely — and repeatedly — asking the authorities for something truly outlandish: an official name for the place they live in.
Yes, 40 years of administrative ping-pong, and still no consensus on what to call a neighbourhood that’s very much there — people, houses, school, polling booths, chaos and all.
Currently, the area is a proud bearer of multiple identities, none of which are actually official. Depending on who you ask, the colony is Kesava Nagar, Fishermen’s Colony or Chepala Colony, Tamil Colony, Kakatiya Colony, Alugunur-2, or — just to spice things up — Kummari Badi Wada. It’s an address lucky dip every time a resident fills a government form.
For those keeping track: the local school is named Kakatiya Colony. The Anganwadi in the same compound? That answers to Alugunur-2. Come election time, the polling booths (No. 133 and 134, for those interested) proudly display “Kummari Badi Wada” — which, coincidentally, is also the name printed on several voter ID cards. Why settle for one identity when you can have many?
The origins of this name soup go back to the 1980s, when then-MLA V Jagapathi Rao distributed house site pattas to local fishermen living near the Lower Manair Dam and called the place Kesava Nagar. Predictably, not everyone was thrilled. Other communities objected — apparently not fond of being grouped under a fishy label — and the plaque bearing the name was promptly removed.
As the years rolled on, a group of Tamil families received housing pattas too, and soon the area became informally known as Tamil Colony.
Kalyan, a resident, summed it up with the weary precision of someone who has filled too many forms: buying land here is an exercise in confusion. Applying for Aadhaar, PAN, or passports? Also confusing. Receiving a letter without it vanishing into the bureaucratic Bermuda Triangle? A miracle.
Meanwhile, the colony continues to serve as the gateway to Karimnagar — a gateway to administrative clarity only spoken of in legends.