What’s In A Name

I was told my grandfather named me and my elder sister. We have a special ceremony for naming an infant. In olden times of joint families, the eldest (patriarch/matriarch) would name the child. In some cases, the naming would be influenced by the planetary position of the baby during birth time or the horoscope.

In Bengalis it’s a racial trait to comb dictionaries and ancient scriptures for uncommon names with profound meaning. Naming girls after flowers is also very common like Madhobilata which in English is Clustered Hiptage or Helicopter Flowers. Imagine naming a girl Helicopter!!!

But we have this weird fascination where names are concerned. One of my classmates was called Puloma which in itself was a rarest of names. When we pestered her for the meaning she said it’s after the name of the grandmother of some mythological character. Who could think of that but a Bangaali!!

But we Bengalis love to pretend to be intellectuals. Weirder is the name prouder we are. It is also a very peculiar habit of ours to ask the meaning of unfamiliar names of acquaintances in social gatherings. Rather irritating but that’s how it is.

Problem with Bengali names are that they are prone to be mispronounced in other parts of the country. We can make out by the names who belongs to which part of the subcontinent. Like Premakka is a typically South Indian name. Please don’t ask me the meaning.

However, nowadays the fashion is to keep names which are not intrinsically Indian – Natasha, Sonya, Eva, Ella, Misha have become favourites.

Meaning of my name is so misleading that it’s rather embarrassing for me to explain its etymology. Geetashree is another name for Goddess Saraswati – the Goddes of knowledge. She always wears white which signifies purity. And she is supposed to have a fine temper. I have merely inherited her temper but not what she is the giver of. But throughout life I have always sought knowledge over everything else which is for sure. Some similarity there!!

My elder sister’s name is Jayashree which is the other name for Goddess Lakshmi. She is the Goddes of material prosperity. My sis has suffered from bouts of insecurity though her finance acumen is very strong. Lakshmi and Saraswati are siblings not in good humour with each other. It is said that they don’t reside together. One who is materially well off may not be keen on gathering knowledge and those who are knowledge seekers care two hoots for material success.

So there goes the history of nomenclature. Though total misnomer and prone to be unpronounceable , I take pride that there are only two of us by the same name in my office! Even Bengalis pretend to mispronounce typically Bengali names. But who cares for vernacular these days???

At one time I was unhappy with my name. Wanted to change it. But at the fag end of life who cares what in a name is and after all who is going to remember what the name of a mere mortal was once you are one with the elements!!! So chill