Whats In A Name

I happened to be born exactly a year after the demise of my granddad and hence my parents decided to name me after him as Gnanaprakash (pronounced as Nyana prakash). Ever since a kind priest christened me, people (surprisingly) seem to have a lot of difficulties in calling me by my baptized name.

Many friends and relatives prefer to call me Prakash, conviently dropping the tough part “Gnana”. My cousin sister when she was 5 years old used to call me “Pichache”, my aunt calls me “Preggy”, my mother call me “Dana”, sometimes “Tom” and my sisters simply call me “Boy”. My friends call me all sorts of names (!), such as “Gyani”, “Praks”, “Pakya”, “Chingu”, “Gnanam”, “Saby”, “Smart Guy”, the list is endless. One of my all time favorites is what my junior college chemistry teacher used to call me. One day in the midst of a serious lecture on organic chemistry she decided to call out to me as “Ganga Prasad”. The whole class was silent for sometime as there was no Gangaprasad in the class. Soon they realized that she was actually referring to me and the whole class was roaring with laughter. Try as hard as I can I could not succeed in making her remember my correct name. So for eternity I remain as Gangaprasad in her memory.

I loved all the names that people have given me. Each one of them is engulfed with nostalgic memories of the past.