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Posted on: Oct 19, '09

My One and Only Disagreement with the Bard!

My one and only disagreement with the bard!
Never believed in, 'what's in a name?'

Someone’s calling out to me------‘Saanikaaaaaaa’---I turn, but don’t see anyone. I don’t fret; I just stand there, surrounded by nothingness, a deep sigh of pleasure escaping me! The pleasure is born out of the music of that name! Saanika! And it means ‘flute’! Lovely and musical, isn’t it? As I continue standing there, the name reverberating around me, there’s a sudden flurry of noises that intrude upon my blissful oblivion!

I hear other names as well; from all directions; voices calling out to me; but each one is a different name------------Mrignayani---------Piya---------Anumati--------Angarika----------Jezebel-------sylvia---------Tiya-------Dori---------oh my! My head is now going round and round like a merry-go-round, trying to respond to each call------------faster, faster----------and then---------------------

--------------CHITHRA, CHITHRA---------wake up, will you? I slowly opened my eyes, hearing my name at the highest decibel level possible; coming back to a state of wakefulness from that dream-filled slumber! Oh my! What a dream!

But I’m not surprised! I’ve always had an incurable penchant for fancy sounding names; well, unique sounding to be more precise! And I’ve always whined that my name is as common

as the commonest cactus! My parents haven’t heard the last of it, yet! I grumble till they go sick of it! Today, the names Pavithra(my sister) and Manasa (my cousin) are a dime a dozen too, but way back, when they were named, the names were termed, ‘groovy’, ‘out of the world’, ‘wonderful’ names! So, I used to go on a warpath; and my mom told me that when she named me, even my name was all that and more! Doesn’t sound convincing, does it?

Of course, I do believe that names have meanings, power and vibrations. There are some interesting reads on 'nameology' and stuff. Not that I discount that Chithra means a lovely picture, but too much 'picture perfect' isn't interesting either! ha haaaaaaaaa

If part of my objection was that I don’t possess a fancier or more ethnic sounding name, the other part was that I ran into a ‘Chithra’ wherever I went! Needn’t go further than the family tree; I have one right in the immediate family! I go to work, I find a couple of Chithras; I go to a corporate for training, I find three Chithras; I sign up for a course, I find at least one Chithra there! Boy! I find them by the dozens, by hundreds!

Even when I shop, I buy things that are unique; that aren’t picked up by all and sundry. I have an LG mobile; everyone asked me why I preferred it over a Nokia and I said, ‘the whole world buys Nokia, so I don’t buy’! But so much

for my uniqueness, I’ve been christened with as ordinary a name as ‘common cold’! Even ‘common cold’ has an impressive sounding name, ‘influenza’! sob sob sob

Look at some of the botanical and zoological names; some of them sound erotic, some exotic, some impressive, some royal, some fantastic, some euphonic, some even sound like an attack of diarrhoea! But what I like about them is, they sound unique! No one is going to possess a name like, ‘Bougainvillea glabra’! It certainly is unique, isn’t it?

Apium Graveolens; and that’s celery for you! ‘Abelmoschus esculentus’; can you believe it’s the botanical equivalent for our ‘okra’, ‘ladies fingers’? Even fingers of ladies have such different sounding names, and the lady that I’m h

as the most non-descript name! Sob sob sob I’ve heard of a family, in which the children have been named as ‘Alpha, Beta and Gama’; obviously, their dad is a lecturer of physics!

Judy Grahn, an American poet, has a beautiful verse, from ‘Paris and Helen’:

He called her: mother of pearl,
barley woman, rice provider,
millet basket, corn maid,
flax princess, all-maker, weef

She called him: fawn, roebuck, stag,
courage, thunderman, all-in-green,
mountain strider, keeper of forests,
my-love-rides

Don’t they sound far better than my name; insipid is the word for it?
Sob sob sob

One day I was so thrilled to come across a page on ‘google’; there’s some ‘logical’ or ‘illogical’ way in which synonyms for your names are found, in French, Irish or any other language you like. Of course I chose French and Irish. (they do sound kind of dreamy, don’t they?) You just need to key in your name and give your gender. Irish was a bit kind to me; it gave me an Irish name, ‘Jacinta Healy’! Mmmmm---------not bad, I thought. But French? It said, ‘Anaiis Blot’! Bah! Hrumpppppphhhhhhhhh! BLOT! What a name! I’m jinxed to be blotted out by my names! sob sob sob

And to add insult to injury, I came across this quote somewhere: ‘The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names’! Going by that, my wisdom is not even at the beginning stage! Though I did grow and extract a couple of ‘wisdom teeth’ as well! sob sob sob!!! Some are born wise; some otherwise!

ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Glossary:

Why did those names feature in my dream?

Saanika – flute
Mrignayani –eyes like a deer
Piya –beloved
Anumati –consent
Angarika –flower
Jezebel –though it means a woman who’s evil, I’ve always been attracted to the sound of this name; kind of like, ‘jazzy’! ha haaaaaaaa
Sylvia – wooded forest
Tiya –bird
Dory – golden hair

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Afterdark0600 said:
Cool one Chitra.. I keep wondering about how someone else can choose to decide on what we will be known for the rest of our lives.. :) And always fight wth parents who name the kids starting wth the alphabet A ... Invariably they are the first ones to get pulled up.. And funnily enough after having named the kids something, the parents always call them with nicks like Pappu, Munnu, Ambi, Pattu, Chellam etc.

Shrikanth

November 09, '09

jpothi2 said:
Great blog CJ (I like that as a pen name!) And thank you for letting us into your bloggin life, you should have done that earlier! With a baby due in January, will think of your blog when we name the baby!

November 08, '09

rollercoaster2001 said:
follicle intimidator...ha ha ha...

whats in a logic ...the name is just a symbol..

my title bawa always gets messed up witb baba...eh...baba ji....some tomes the word gets rhymed too...funny names.

...and kudos chitra u have done it. congrats

November 04, '09

manisha_bhattacharya said:
hmmm...I'm in the same boat...

October 29, '09

indra_the_lord said:
Thanks Sazzyme for sharing , CJ ur just awesome and now all benguloreans agree with what we always said..congratulations and let us all c a more of ur 'bards' getting published in future ( Hey CJ , How about penning a book of small stories , think over ), TC , Cheers!!!

October 26, '09

solarflare said:
S........... C............. daaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!r />
hee hee hee....

October 24, '09

Hass5355 said:
Love It! Thoroughly Enjoyable to read the above Blog. With reference to Irish/French Names, Should Try Welsh Names In their Original Language & Scottish Names In Gaelic, One of the Beautiful Sounding Names.
Full Marks To You For Style of This Post With Illustrated Graphics - Excellent.

October 24, '09

sriangood said:
Cogatulations for getting this article published

October 23, '09

cre8ive27 said:
CONGRATULATIONS CHITHRA!!!!!!!!!!!!<br />
Have you shared this blog earlier too...I remember reading n commenting on it about my name being more common than yours as its used by both the genders...LOL

October 23, '09

tanu1952 said:
congrats cj...and thanx sazzy for sharing the blog....nice names...though names have meanings but we mainly use it for signature ...at the same time name does not make a man good or bad...nice post indeed

October 23, '09

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