What's in a name ..?
Is it possible to find a single soul in
this world who is completely in awe of his own name ? Find me one,
my hats off to him.. most people will claim they don't know how or why
they got the name, 'Ask my parents' is the most repeated response.. Its not strange, considering most names, even simple ones can
be construed as something totally different when translated into some
strange language like Swahili, for instance , so , what should the
poor parents do? Name the kid a number 45678, just to be completely
safe ? Or sit with a dictionary and translate each name into 100
other tongues to be sure , don't think the parents of Hardik* or any
of the HAroons* ever did that , did they?
And so the name saga continues.. Even
the folks with seemingly innocuous names dont seem to be too happy
about them .Ask one Mr Alok Agarwal*( who happens to become
Alex,Agro, Alag or Alu courtesy rechristening at various points in
time, by hapless individuals struggling to twist their tongues around
his common name ), for when some people could really read his name fully
and correctly, as at the immigration points, was greeted with a stern
warning” Doubtful case, do not proceed” . So considering that there
are at least a 1000 Alok Agarwals in this part of the world alone,
the perils of too common a name begin to surface too soon.Not to
forget the many Osamas* habiting the other worlds. What can the poor
chappies do , now that they are stuck with a combination that seemed
innocent then, but is now proving to be so deadly that it is greeted
with the greatest of trepidation?
Maybe they could change a couple of
things, like the spelling somewhat. The clever newspaper ads are
doing this all the time , I regularly see ( and actually read , yes ,
I do, not surprising considering i hope to get a PHd on names and naming practices ) notices on the lines of “I” “Mrs Krishna” am now to
be called “Mrs Krishnaa”. Yes,we got the “a”dditional point,
but it may not help much if other vile Krishnaas did the same ..
Other possibilities spring to mind. How
about adding a Kumar, to make an “Alok kumar Agarwal'AKA “AKA”.
Again that may not exactly work, as there may be a sizeable number of
such AKAs floating around, much more than desired. An inclusion of :
Junior /Senior' is possible, but again , it may seem too exotic to
find an “ Alok junior Agarwal” , and hence impossible to ignore,
and may therefore elicit unwanted questions about lineage etc. Who
wants to open those Pandoras boxes now ...
So , finally one last try, why not
borrow a leaf from the female books and add a double- barrell to the
name , both for effect and exclusivity. Since the probability of
finding an “Alok Agarwal- Mohanrao” may be close to one in a zillion, it brings the advantage of sailing past all the
immigration/police/customs what have you checkpoints , faster than
you can say the name, tongue- in -cheek . And if the name
itself were an issue, you could always display the marriage certificate
, as the female members of the species do, uncomplainingly. We are in
the 21st century, after all, and an woman is,( in theory or
on paper at least) equal to a man. So by corollary, a man could be
equal to the woman as well.
Happy birthday, Mr AAM**
* Names changed to protect identify
Haroon- means i lose ( hindi)
**AAM in hindi means mango also means common
Haroon- means i lose ( hindi)
**AAM in hindi means mango also means common
Good one amlingindian. .....so much so for the far sighted parents of mine who opted for an ALOK...n not some Amarchand or Anokharam or ABCD for that matter. AAM is perfect for me n I am loving it though.
ReplyDelete