What’s in a name?

Posted by Abhimanyu on March 19, 2009 · 4 Comments 

My colleague Rinchen thinks my name is too difficult to pronounce. So she decided to call me Himanshu. No reason. Just a name that is not too difficult to pronounce. Finding it too difficult to digest, I have started calling her Radha. No reason.

Names are funny.

I once knew someone called Minty. She was quite sweet.

The bassist in my friend’s newly formed band is called Mama.

My roommate in second year of college was Gafur Ahmed Ali Bukhari. Ok, his name was Nitesh but he himself couldn’t remember that name. Plus Gafur was so much cooler.

A friend in school used to have a pet tortoise named Bhairon Singh.

I actually know someone with the surname Ghuwalewala. I don’t think there is anyone else in this world with that surname other than her and her family.

I know five girls named Nidhi. And I know all of them very well.

I know two people with three word names – all starting with ‘S’. Simram Shekhar Singh was my senior in college. Ragged me the most. Is today a very close friend. The other one was a technology-illiterate professor at IIM Calcutta – Sunita Singh Sengupta.

I rarely get along well with people named Abhinav (or variations of it).

A close friend is called Swetha or “was Swe at some point of time (masculine)”. Her sister is called Swathi or “was Swa at some point of time (feminine)”.

Nicknames of people I know range from geometric (Gols aka rounds) to animalistic (Nag aka snake, Dariyai Ghoda aka hippo, Chidiya aka sparrow) to super cool (Gafur Ahmed Ali Bukhari, Evil Mother) to downright ugly (Sux).

The best nickname I have ever heard is Diaper.

The sweetest name I have personally known anyone to have is Kokil. And I have never seen her or heard her voice.

The best name for a man I have met was Yash Veer Bhatnagar. He is a snow leopard researcher. If I ever change my name, I am getting this one.

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