It was William Shakespeare who wrote ‘What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’ I am not here to defeat the literary genius on this point. A name is something which distinguishes one from another. However, this so called something – ‘name’ is not what I want to discuss here but names that express affection. Yes, pet names.
Speaking of me, few people know that I am known by many names. To begin with, my childhood pet name was one of the most common Gujarati pet names – ‘Laaloo’. For people who are not aware that this name is a common Gujarati pet name, they often confuse it for Laaloo Prasad Yadav and wonder why any parent would call their kid affectionately with such a name. Basically, ‘Laalo’ is how few people refer to Lord Shree Krishna. So when people see cute little children, playing around the house, messing up things they name them with different versions of Laalo. Yes different versions of same name. Like at different stages in my life I was called up as – Laaloo, Laalo, Laala and even Laali sometimes when my mom was in a very affectionate mood. Oh I am sorry I forgot to mention you the Marathi version of that name, it is – ‘Laalya’. My neighbors were Maharastrian and they found this name much more preferable over the other names which I mentioned. I am sure reading those names sounds nothing more than a nursery rhyme or humming out a lullaby, but for me they will always be words of motherly affection.
I was born in 1985. Few months before my birth a squadron leader and pilot with the Indian Air Force embarked on the historic mission in 1984 as part of a joint space program between the Indian Space Research Organization and the Soviet Intercosmos space program and spent eight days in space. His name was Rakesh Sharma and my Grandfather was very much impressed with this man. My grandfather (father’s father) had big dreams for me and named me – ‘Rakesh’. I was too young when he rested in peace. In fact, I was so young that because of not having an understanding of what, actually, has happened - I could not even cry on his funeral. May be this is what he wanted, he did not want me to cry but he wanted me to smile forever and to fly and touch the skies. Of course, I am not an astronaut today to go in space but I am an optimist. News flashed few days back which said ‘Now you can easily travel in space – just need 125 crores INR’. Needless to say I switched back to the channel of reality – the channel of life.
I am not a silly person to say that by mentioning grandfather I, actually, meant my father’s father but there is a reason for this. Though it was him who named me ‘Rakesh’, none of the relatives from my father’s side called me with this name. For them I was always laaloo or laaloo bhai for my cousins. But few relatives from my mother’s side they still call me by this name. This aroused a lot of confusion in my mind as confused as you are now while reading this. What I could never understand is that why people from same house called me with different names. Like my mothers brother, his wife and their son they all call me Rakesh but their daughter she calls me – ‘Gopal’. Yet another name added to my list, I had no objections and questions to this.
For people like us (me and my friends!) the definition of pet name varies from person to person. Affection might not be the only reason, sometimes the reason might originate from the place a person belongs to, like my friend ‘Chuna’ who actually stays at Chunabhatti. It was not just Chuna, there were many others like Virus, Chimni, Bachha, Mowgli, Gud, Mankhurd and the funniest being ‘Babloo Blousepiece’. I would have liked to share the story behind that name but I have another one which is about my friend ‘Vasu’ (obviously his real name is not Vasu!). In college days we used pair up most of our friends with a girl or two. This way you can easily harass both the girls and boys. So this guy was paired up with a girl named Sapna. One day, someone mentioned that he saw a movie named ‘Ek duje ke liye’ which was basically love story and the name of the couple in the movie was ‘Vasu-Sapna’. Till this day we call this guy Vasu and he gets frustrated with that. For this poor guy one name was not enough. A professor of ours, in one of the lectures, noticed my friend talking with his bench mates. Now I don't know what made him so furious that he actually threw a duster at my friend. My friend had to take three stitches and there you go, he got his new name – ‘Takya’.
Going back to college, where we paired up vasu and sapna, why would everyone spare me? They paired up me with this girl whom every called ‘Rock’. At many occasions she was noticed raising her one eyebrow quite like what Rock the wrestler did. So they aptly named her Rock. Now poor girl was already much irritated with the new name and because my friends could no longer call her with this name they named me Rock. They used to shout this name till they died with satisfaction that she was harassed. But whatever might me the reason to keep a name for a person other than his actual name, sooner or later this reason vanishes. What remains is just the name. Even today when I refer to my friend as Vasu it is not because I actually rethink the whole story behind that name but because it reminds me of the days we spent together. And today on phone when I talk to my friend, who is in US, he still calls me Rocky not because he wants to irk that girl, but over a period of time this is what we got used to. It is like if you are used to referring someone as Chirounjilaal you just cannot start calling him Salman from next day. By the way, for the curious souls, let me tell you that the girl is happily married.
BHAPIE – this is one absurd name given to me. During our submissions in my final year engineering I had my project report in my hand. The font spacing on the report cover was not accurate and it made the double T in my surname to appear as ? (pie). My friend actually read it as a pie and derived this Bhapie. Adding a few more usual ones derived directly from my name – Raj, Raju, Raju-Kaju and Rajib. Not to forget the ‘Mote’, as there was a time when I was healthy enough for people to call me a fatty. Trust me, you can figure out the affection when someone calls you ‘Aye Mote’. Gone are the days when I was referred as the fatty, the motu. They no longer call me laaloo. While few still continue referring me with other names.
My name gives me an identity. It gives identity to my deeds. The names which I mentioned earlier are all different ways of affection of my friends and family towards me.Not that I do not know the meaning of my name. My actual name means Lotus flower. But just to improve your general knowledge I performed a search on Google for the meaning of my name and what I found is this – “Your name means ‘lotus flower’, derived from the Sanskrit origin meaning ‘striped.’ There was a prominent Indian politician with your name who was assassinated in 1991.” On that hysteric note I present you my name – Rajiv.
2:36 AM |
Category:
Humour
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Comments (12)
Nice yaar.. funny and very well written. Reminded me of all my school friends and the pet names we had in childhood.
BTW when did your name change from Rakesh to Rajiv? or Rakesh wasn't official?
Nice post....it indeed reminded me my school/college days....
BTW i found 1 resemblance...i am Gujju too ...with usual pet name ...same as yours :) ...n Marathi version also matches ;)
Rajat, I never changed my name. It was always Rajiv :) . But my grandfather used to call me Rakesh and this name doesnt sound like a pet name may be thats why you got confused.
ha ha .. thats a gr8 co-incidence to find someone with same gujju n maharatrian pet name ;)
gr8 one ...
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