what's in a name?


Though borrowed from Shakespeare, i know i have asked this question a million times. Having born during days when girls were named after flowers, rivers and goddess' and growing up when Aiswarya and Sushmita was a household names( of course with Rai and Sen added in some cases) , and when every movie had Pooja s and Priya s as the female characters, i was me.-VALAIKODI.


Thanks to my dads frequent transfers and the linguistic richness of India, i was rechristened every time. It was "Valeer koodi....Vaaalai kadi.. and sumtimes a much better Malarkodi down south to "Balle kudi" to my punjabi colonel principal to Mr.Valaikodi for a Sinhale professor, that was the ultimatum(  i know there is more to come). Friends called me "bent flag", "creeper","net"  and what not translations from any local language-dialect possible.The intelligent ones made tongue twisters like "Valaikodi Kolaivadi" .I take credits for being the cause for budding singers among friends who made this- valaikodi valaikodi..nee oru sema kadi kadi (oh oh the english translations are not necessary here) sung to the tunes of Masakali Masakali- thank you Ryckordec.( Thats what we called ourselves in college-Ten on the ritcher scale, another what so ever name)

May be it is all this attention, all the mocking, teasing, giggling and that two second blink everyone gave before reading out my name made me realize, Oh yes i am the only Valaikodi i know. A unique name with strong tamil literary sense to it, named interestingly. No one forgets me, as i am not the many priya s they know(No offences to all of you out there). 

A name gives you a identity, people relate to you by it, remember you by it. A name, a pet name, a nick name, a pen name and what not. People had names, pets were given names, cars and gadgets were named, Teddy bears were named and now cyclones and hurricanes are Katrina, Mala, Nargis and our of course not to forget our local Thane, names are everywhere. The elaborate naming ceremonies, the letters from grandparents that contained names to the googling for names on net, the search never ends.

 So whenever or where ever i hear a conversation on names and naming, I just cant keep mum. With things going globolocal  and the hollywood going Neytiri, Eytucan and Eywa and all our Harvinders going Harvey i am all excited about the next gen names, which will be multi lingual, unisex and what not. So whats your name?-Namesake

PS- Mummy and Daddy ,thanks for THE NAME.