A blog post-2

Today during lunch break we were discussing who all have nick names…I do not have one. Both siblings have two names each and a third joint name!!..as in they are called “Ani” and “Manu” when addressed individually..but if one has to call them together/ or refer to them together…it becomes “Ani-Mani”..:D, so basically the twins share 5 names between them..:O. I always wanted that even I should have been given a nick name. I guess parents made up for their deed of not nick naming me by bestowing siblings with a set of 5 names..:D….anyways, I have always been known by this single name only. Infact if I look around, almost all my cousins have a nick name, even all my chachas/ maamas ..yess..ALL..and they would be somewhere close to 30 if I count all the cousins my dad has… have nicknames…..infact I still do not know the official names of many of them..:O…yess, it was never needed…..the only times when we ever came to know about the “actual” names of these chaachas / maamas was when we had to write their names on invitation cards..or we received the invites of their marriage..or we actually went to their place and saw it on the name plate… :D…I remember..bachpan mein if we actually needed to know any chachaas real name…we would ask dad..”papa Bombay vale pappu chacha ka naam kya hai???.....(Bombay vale was imp, because there is another pappu chaacha..Musoorie vale…whos actual name I still do not know..:D) Huge family you see….nick names also had to be repeated after a certain point…:D (Btw ..i have a Pappu mama also….:D)
I remember in Bombay vale pappu chaacha ka naam I came to know when I went to his place in Mumbai for the first time in 2006. I saw it on his nameplate at the reception of his building..and had “Dhyani” not been written next to it..i would have never been able to figure out which one was his flat..:). Thank God the sir name is not too common, otherwise the family would have had a tough time finding and identifying each other outside home..:) ..So many a times it happens that I come across people who ask me..are vo falaane Mr. XYZ Dhyani ko hum jaante hain, vo jo tumhaare chaacha hain…and we kids are clueless, as we only know our chaachas/ maamas as Nandan Chaacha/ Tinku chaacha etc..:)
The other day..FB was throwing suggestions for friends….a name called Sachin Nawani was appearing almost every day…..i thought lemme go and see ye kaun hain…clicked on the profile and discovered that it was “dabloo” mama’s profile…:D..my mum’s first cousin…
In school we use to have many kids whos names in school seemed as if they were their nick names only….there was a guy called Goldy…I always thought ki iski shaadi ke card pe ye naam kaisa lagega…:D..however, I guess Goldy read my mind..and later changed his name in class 10.
Then my mum had some students like..Silky Bagga…:O…matlab mum papa ne zyaada dimaag hi nahi lagaya naam rakhne se pehle….or may be…the naamkaran ceremony was bypassed and by the time parents reached the stage where the child’s name was to be registered in a school…they did not feel like straining there grey cells and let the “happy”, “silky”, “princy”, “bubbly” name prevail!!
Anyways, all said and done I always secretly wished for a nick name and wondered how kool it would have been to have one…
So I thought that when I have kids, they surely will have nick names..:)…until I met husband who is a staunch disbeliever of nick names…..and feels that nicknames tend to stay with people for too long and these grown up kids when called Shanky uncle and Simpi aunty…it kind of does not go very well with their graying hair…:D
And since I strongly believe in not imposing/ trying things on my kids which I could not do/ accomplish…I too have decided to go with his thoughts and it seems like nick names will be distant thing in family as of now….

and this song for all our babloos and dabloos...and Bhatt ji....jinke soujanya se ye gaana yahan chipak paaya...:)

Writing about nick names reminds me of the horoscope names which we people have. It is the name which a child has based on his/ her DoB, ToB etc..and which panditji tells during naamkaran..however the official name has to be different from the janampatri name and thank GOD for that....because in my case that name was such a big disaster that inspite of me being generally cmfrtable laughing at myself, i have never ever told anybody about my hor(ror)oscope name..:O..the peculiarity quotient of bthese names can be gauged by the fact that siblings horo names were Ghananand and Ghanaakshri....and i find these OK when compared to mine..:D