What's in a name ? Plenty. A prayer, a blessing or just grace.
Naming children has
a kind time reference and they seem to change much like the fickle fashion. So we
have gone through a phase of Rahul, Siddharth, Gautam, Kanishk, Aditya and so on, then
there were Sonia, Shania, Ayesha, Sara, Saira etc. No wonder coming up with a
paper back on naming children was suddenly a publisher’s bright idea. Much
before all the season of fashionable names,
naming was either an offering, a blessing or a thanks giving. When I
wrote my grandfather’s obituary early this year, I remembered that he was
first called “Pitchai” literally “alms” or “begged of”, my great grandmother’s
final call to the almighty for help after having lost atleast 6-7 infants at
child birth or those who did, did not survive long. That was
about 90 years ago.
Bachi is a name I
have frequently heard, and presumed that it was meant to be “a baby or little
one” as in Hindi. However ‘Bachi’ as it turned out in Bachi’s own words was a
name that was given him as he was the one ‘saved’ after many of his siblings
succumbed to what was then a very high rate of newborn deaths. I am intrigued
by names of men and women across the world and if its not a Seema, Sonia, Anil
or Sunil always ask what it means.
Who knows one may just stumble upon a piece
of tradition or history or a heart rending story !!