>> A series of older posts from my intra-infy blog<<
What is there in a name- this sparked an unexpected reaction in me when I got a comment like this for my last blog. Whoever said this (I heard Shakespeare, but then I also heard that Shakespeare’s works were not original, they were of one of his friends), had probably never imagined the importance of a name in a person’s life. Ask this to a guy who is named “Tappu” by his parents. Or worse, “Pinky”. Or Chandeler(“That spells something like a chandelier, but its not that”(from FRIENDS). Or those names which are so difficult to pronounce or spell that the kid with those names would dread being asked his name in his initial years.. like “Kushagra” or “Dhritharashtra”(from Mahabharata. What exactly were his parents thinking?) or Phoebe(again, no-fans of FRIENDS please excuse). Or those people who have such common names that they have to prefix it with numbers or other crazy things to distinguish themselves ( like Rahul. In my class, there were 6 Rahuls, and we identified them as Rahul01, tall Rahul, Mokkai Rahul, Divya’s Rahul and so on). Or they give them names which have such crazy meaning that either they pretend they don’t know, or give it some twisted meaning of their own (Like my name- “Meenal”. It means “fish like”, which, on looking closely, also means “fishy”). I remember one of my non-Hindi speaking friend asking me “that new girl downstairs, her name is Payal. What does that mean?” to which I promptly replied “It means anklet”. She gave me a look which I can never forget “why would someone name a person ‘anklet’??”.. . I was speechless.
Or the Bard never imagined the state of a girl
There is always some thought process, which may by very simple and may appear not so thoughtful to a third person. My Dad named me so because one of the neighbour had this name and he liked it, it was sort of unique and the end of name rhymed with his. My son is named so because thaht seemed to be the best choice (considering length, ease of pronouncing etc) with in the set of names starting with "L". There is hardly any relationship between the meaning of name and personality of the named, it's just too hard to predict, probably that's why astrologers used to do this job earlier because they had some sense of what a peron would be in future. The point is - purpose of name is to identify someone and since the named can't take that decision, its done by elders, so lets respect those choices, whatever it is. When there were not many people earlier, there was uniqueness but now we are short of names, hence the multiplicity and need of numbers - PAN card or SSN. Our names are better than those, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteP.S: Good to see that you are writing again...
Same thing happened to my brother's daughter named akshara literally meaning a single syllable. This lady in US asked why would you name a girl syllable? :) what can we say :) Nice blog. Keep writing.
ReplyDeleteRegards
Vibushan
www.thegeminimind.blogspot.com
What is in a name? Want to see it? Then try to name "RAM MANDIR" of Ayodhya as "RAHAMAN MANDIR" and see the effect :)
ReplyDeleteOr else see older news when someone used the name "Mohammed" in a story....
Sandhya.