What’s in a Name? Or Multiple Names?
“Madhav!” I call and my mom responds. My friends stare at me, aghast. I figure something’s wrong. My eyes widen as I realize what’s wrong. How could I call my mother by her name? Even if it’s a strange one that’s typically a male name?
I burst out laughing. I explained to them that I was not calling my mom by her name. It so happened that one of her favourite actors is Madhabi Mukherjee from Bengali cinema. And so, in my teenage years, I got into the habit of teasingly calling her by that name. Yup, the full name. Over time, I didn’t even realize when it shortened to Madhav.
Nowadays, I call her ‘Mother India’. Sounds grand enough to suit her. :D And on some days, ‘Mummy kuttan’ which literally means ‘Mummy Child’. :D But then, my mom is not the only recipient of a new name from me. There are many others and there’s a history behind why names fascinate me.
It was the first week of college when someone asked me my name. I blanked out. No, I don’t have amnesia. :D My brain just scrambled. Till then, I was used to being called one name by my family and neighbours, while I had another ‘official’ name for school. So, when my brain was put in a setting that didn’t fit in either of these categories, it couldn’t compute. :P
I’ve heard of friends having pet names and nicknames. However, I’ve yet to come across someone who has four names like I do—three legit names and one babyish pet name, courtesy parents. I attribute it to a confused family.
I got one name during my naming ceremony. But my mom was not too happy with it so she started calling me by another name (not the pet name). Then they changed their minds when I was to receive my ‘official’ name on my birth certificate. This is how I’m Rajani (Ruhj-ni, usually mispronounced as Ruh-jaa-nee. Also a Sindhi surname :P).
But for the longest time I struggled between the name at home with which I felt more comfortable and my official name which felt formal to me. The one from the naming ceremony is long gone with the wind. I had to actively work to make myself like the name Rajani. Why? Because there was a TV show called ‘Rajani’ when I was really young. My playmates thought it was a grand idea to sing the theme song, ‘Rajani, Rajani, Rajani’ around me.
Then there would be some who would call me Rajnikant (a famous Tamil actor. A few friends also call me Rajni-can’t. Funny! Not.). Perhaps it was the influence of the actor, for one day I successfully copied his fight move on Swapna, my younger sister, when we were fighting. Hee!
If that’s not enough, a doctor would playfully call me ‘Rajani-gandha’. That is actually the name of a sweet-smelling night blossom, where ‘gandha’ means ‘smell’. But we can’t have that, can we? The doctor thought it hilarious to use the other meaning of ‘gandha’ = dirty. Trauma, I tell you!
This continued till someone in the family casually mentioned that my name is a combination of the names of my parents and sister. ‘Ra’ from Ramakrishnan my dad, ‘Ja’ from Jayashree my older sister and ‘Ni’ from Sukesini my mom. I’m just glad that Swapna my other sister was born after me! I might have been Swarajani, whatever that means!
I was also really kicked when a former colleague and copy editor, Noel Fernandes, pointed out that my surname has ‘India’ in it. So, I’d go around telling people ‘Th’ India ‘Th’ when I needed to spell my surname out. Flummoxed were their faces, as they wondered if I were some new kind of patriot! :P
And then, when I joined Tinkle comics magazine and books, Uncle Pai (Anant Pai, the founder-editor) and I would always be the first two people to enter office. On some mornings, he took particular delight in greeting me with, 'Good Morning, Good Night'. Because ‘Rajani’ means ‘night’. So that is a fun memory.
So the moral of the story is: my family is to blame for my tendency of bestowing names on people. I often try out new names on colleagues. As I like to explain to them, it is too much to expect someone to go through their whole life with only one name!
Mind you, bestowing a new name is a long process. The name has to be whimsical, suit the person and they need to be okay with the different versions I try on them or yeah… just give in to my suggestions, either works! ;)
Apart from my mom who became Madhav, Jayashree (my sister) has suffered through multiple iterations. There was Jhumri Telaiya (it’s a city in Jharkhand, a state in India, but I picked it up from Hindi movies), Kajraarey Baadal (kohl-like clouds) and more recently Joy to the World, shortened to Joy... sometimes. :P Yup, convoluted, grand names are more fun because… ‘mouth exercise’.
Then friends started receiving my bounty. Some names I just shortened while some got entire new names. Writer-artist-animator-entrepreneur Abhijeet (Kini) got named PariMan, because anytime I was lost (my sense of direction is legendary) he came to my rescue like a guardian angel. All I had to do was call him and all he had to do was refer to landmarks that were restaurants (foodie, that is me).
Writer-artist-editor Dolly (Pahlajani) became Dolce (possibly because she makes fun of most brands) while writer-editor Shruti (Dave) became Bugs (she had that same cheeky grin as Bugs Bunny). Business Head Aishwary (Gupta) became Ashwinder (maybe simply because he towers over me :P) and writer-editor-producer Sean (D'mello) I sometimes laughingly called D'mellodramatic (for obvious reasons. He was just 21 when he joined the team).
Manager-writer-editor Sean (Sequeira) became Bodhi short for Bodhisattva (he’s kinda zen), while Vineet (Nair) became Vinito Infinito (he has this cool superhero-like white streak in his hair plus he's a comics illustrator). Writer-producer Ritu (Mahimkar) turned into Luka short for Romelu Lukaku (yup, the footballer for no apparent reason except it’s a wonderful name!).
Writer Mahzbeen (Kayani) became Doda (from Doddabetta the mountain and Doda’s Dubukka, an old story in Tinkle) while assistant editor and writer Aparna (Sundaresan) turned into Aps (short for Apsaloosa… I was kinda thinking of Appaloosas) and assistant editor Devika (Soni) into the mysterious 'D' (which is the shortest so far).
Artist and group art director Savio (Mascarenhas), is sometimes Salvadore (since he likes to pretend that he has his roots in Portugal, complete with the Mascarenhas family crest :P) and artist Akshay (Khadilkar) became Tripathiji (for no good reason and yes, the ‘ji’ suffix is essential. Respect!).
Business Head Ritika (Basu) laughingly accepted Toxica after she was mean to me. Once. Since she was being so accommodating, I gleefully featured her as the villain Toxica in the Shikari Shambu comics series in Tinkle magazine. :D The character carried along her favourite rubber duck, called the Bombay Duck, on her shoulder (Psst! That one's based on a hilarious incident where Ritika (who's from Kolkata) ordered Bombay Duck only to find it is a fish! :P :D).
My favourite person to experiment on is my niece, Aisha (Nair). She’s the only one who actively collaborates in coming up with new names (though she tends to discard the names later which is just not right!). She’s Swara Strawberry Nair (she was nearly named Swara which means a musical note and she loved strawberries at the time).
She’s also Shizuka Nair (her favourite Doraemon strikes!) and my favourite Jusht-a-Mountain Nair (she was all of 3 and relating a story with great seriousness). Nowadays, she’s Poocha (Malayalam for cat) or Boo (I liked the name from a character in the TV show Fleabag).
Funnily however, when I have to name characters in the books I write, they are usually monosyllabic or at least as short as I can make them. And that I attribute to my phenomenal memory or the lack thereof! :D
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