I was glad to receive the bundle of joy last year. Earlier while she was in my womb, I had the feeling it was a girl child and I selected the name "Mahima" (meaning "grace"). My husband agreed for this name and he felt it would be a boy child and chose some boy names. Later when she was born, he said Mahima is not SEO compatible and searched for a unique name. We chose the name "Harshada"(meaning "giver of joy") One of the male names he chose was Harshad). Again there were too many google results. He wanted a unique name just like his and continued the search. He got 75 namavallis and finally felt Oorjasvita (meaning "One who has the primordial energy") had 0 search results. Even with other spellings, it had the least hit. So this name was chosen to be the official name. As per his customs, 3 names has to be given during Namakaranam (naming ceremony). So we decided to have Mahima, Harshada and Oorjasvita as the 3 names. During namakaranam, my father-in-law expressed his desire to keep it as "Vijayalakshmi" and told him to write that as the first name in the "rice grain" (nellu). Then the "Vaathiyaar" (who performed the ritual) said the count of names has to be either 3 or 5 or 7 or 21. This was not audible to me. So to my surprise, after writing the 4 names in the rice grain, Vagmi turned to me and asked for that one more name. Looking at her eyes (Resembling Linga Bhairavi's eyes), I instantly told the name "Bhairavi" without a thought. After the namakaranam, friends and relatives visited to see the child. One of my father's friend asked "What is the child's name?" My father said "Oor-jas-vi-ta". My father's friend immediately responded "ஏங்க இப்படி திட்றீங்க? பேர தானே கேட்டேன்" (Why are you scolding, I just asked the name). All of the audience laughed and said "He was only trying to tell the name". So he asked "What is the name?" for almost 5 times after which he gave up and remarked "செரி இத சாதாரணமா எப்படி ஞாபகம் வச்சு கூப்பிடறது?"(How does someone remember and call it). My father confessed "நான் மனப்பாடம் பண்ணேன் "(I memorized it). My mama (sister's husband) suggested inorder to save the trouble of repeating the name we can stick her name in block letters in the wall and show it when someone asks for the name. Looking at the plight of my relatives, neighbours and friends who could hardly pronounce the name and stopped with the sound "OOooo" trying to repeat the name, I told them you can either call her Mahima or Harshada. My maid couldn't pronounce any of these names. So I told her "call her Bhairavi". When I went to the gynaecologist, she asked the name in a friendly way and when I told the name, she alarmingly said "இத எப்படி கூப்பிடறது" (How can I call her") and I told she has a choice and told her the other names and she happily selected the name "Mahima" and wrote it in the antenatal card.When I told the name to a Hindi speaking person, she mistook it for "Ojasvita". So far we have not met a single person who had got the name in the first pronounciation. Only friends who had seen her name in the written fashion such as facebook friends actually got the name. So the other names stick wherever appropriate.
One of my friend forwarded a message about the pressure on studies which had affected the son and father's relation. I understand that if the forward is true, Sujatha had written that in his biography inorder to state the issue of childhood trauma caused due to constant pressure to study and score marks. However that message also justifies the son's action, which I feel is the wrong approach. This spun to a discussion among my friends and one of my friend stated that "Childhood experiences matter the most in anyone's life. Nobody chooses to detach, it just happens. What impressions the innocent child got, stays in his mind fresh and it is very dangerously strong. That part of the brain operates beyond logic". I agree on the part that emotions beat logic especially in childhood and it is nearly impossible to uproot the hatred that the oppression had created. It is true until the point you become a parent yourself. But the moment you become a parent there is a r...
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