what's in a name??

These words start one of the greatest or perhaps the greatest romantic ,tragedies in english literature,"ROMEO AND JULIET".


What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet.

They are so simple , yet so ingenious.
Now i am no fan of shakesphere, lets face it, he is no detective novelist or dan brown , or robert ludlum or sidney sheldon, who spice up their works.

To me his work is like a bland oat meal breakfast with sour milk as base. Perhaps thats why classics are classics.Just like text books are text books. Neither are fun to read/watch but are accepted as the best in their respective fields.

But have you ever thought about it? why are you named the way you are? why did your parents name you the way they did?

In our malayali ,hindu tradition, unlike some parts of the world, a child is not named immediatley after he/she is born.
i was a nameless human offspring for 28 days. thats right.
i was not named anything. simply"the baby","he","it".

So on the 28th day since my birth, a ritual of sorts took place, with my parents and their families gathering.

In malayalam its called "irupaththi ettu" which simply translates as 28.

Similar rituals exist in other places, they call it as naamkarans in north. the jews have the bris on the 8th day.Perhaps it is only christians who actually name their children as soon as the birth(correct me if am wrong).

For us , there is no circumcision involved(thank fully). The ritual involves a parent or in many cases a grandparent , taking the child up in his/her arms and calling its decided name 3 times by its ear.

Idonno if calling a name 3 times sort of embedds the name in our cerebral harddisk.
If so, this would ofcourse be the first bit of non ,natural data that we recieve.

Now , my name is ASHWIN. and it means a knight or cavalier.
I like my name.
It actually can be spoken by british(who are terrible at names ), remember naming , oothakamandalam as ooty or thiruvandandapuram as trivandrum, or better yet simple sweet mumbai as bombay ( who can't say that?)

There was argument over my name i am sure. my dad wanted me named kannan ( malayalam name for krishna) but my mom wanted it as ashwin.I guess logic prevailed.

I don't think kannan would be that easy a name to live with , especially outside kerala.

Ihave noticed , that several times the name we are given means something thats totally opposite to our character.
Now my name means a knight, and yet i don't think i have ever been to brave, chivalrous. or even a true gentle men at best?
Well maybe i didn't notice it that much.

This is not just in my case.

Pretty, fair kids are named krishna(means dark, or black)

Hot tempered girls are named shanti( peace).

Hard headed politician is named mulayam(soft)???

Guy who is been involved in a fodder scam, has changed the face of indian railways economy is named lalu(simpleton)

should i continue?
So really?


What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet.

Name means nothing.
Not just the name that we get written on our ssc cirtificates, drivers license and ration cards.
But the name as in name and fame.

But does name mean nothing?


when we die. we die with nothing. no money, no name goes to heaven.
all we need when we die. is that people know our name.and talk about us as, that was a good man. that was a famous man.
and they know us as we are called.

but in another sense,
if gandhi was called something else? would he have changed?
if hitler was called by another name? would he change?

the thing is we donot know.
we have no infrastructure or say ability to tell of what would have been.

for now, my name was, is and will remain (even if i convert my religion)

ASHWIN

P.S Picute shows me at the naming ceremony being carried by my mother as my grandma(dad's mother) is tying a waistband (aranjanam) , believed to save a baby from evil eyes ,diseases, fear. Not sure it worked.