Friday, February 04, 2011

What's in a name!

About this time last year, I was 32 weeks pregnant and we hadn't shortlisted names for the baby. All along pregnancy I refered to him/her as 'Bebloo' and it just stuck on. She was born on 27th February 2010, and we din't have a name for her at birth. Since the office of birth registrations here in the UK, mandate that you register the baby within 42 days of birth, we came up with a name that we thought we really liked and I remember running to the office on the 42nd day and registered her as 'Ashima'. Even while I was walking back from the office I repeated the name in my mind and felt that doesnt sound like her at all! We have no clue what happened after all the searching and finalizing we had done....we just dint seem to think 'Ashima' suited her! :)
The registrar had jokingly said 'you can change your mind within a year and it will be just a small adminstrative hassle if you want to change her name'. I took her up on that casual comment! We actually decided to change her name... In the 11th month 24 days before the deadline, we were struggling with the name again. If it was possible, we would have slept over it till the 26th of February...but apparently we have to get her passport made by the 27th...so we just had to close the name this week!

I took the appointment for 10am on 3rd February. Ever since I took the appt a week back, I asked everyone I interacted with in the last one week about names. My mail box was flooded with names...from all over..Was up till late on the 2nd, talking about names and we chose 'Anshruta'. Everything was fine and decided till 3rd morning. We wake up and I start referring to Bebloo as 'Anshruta'...the 11 month old ignores...as if to say 'u should have started 11 months back...now I am used to 'Bebloo'...dont expect me to turn back and look at every wrd u keep mumbling'!
I call up my parents and they say 'we liked 'anahita'...call up a few more friends and get some 3-4 more opinions! Finally we think 'maybe anahita is better'. I am a Libran. You should expect me to find decision making difficult! :)
Its 8am and I have just about 2 hours to go for the appointment. The nanny comes home and sees Dips and me still talking about names and tossing ideas around. She smiles and shares a joke with Bebloo saying 'your parents are fighting over your name!' Bebloo seemed very amused and seems to say 'ok..whtever..make sure I get my breakfast on time'.
Then I run behind her calling her 'Anahita' and this time she ignores even more..I almost thought I saw a smirk on her face which said 'Can you make up your mind mommie?'

Dips gets all ready to leave for work by 8..and then he just googles 'Anahita' and comes and tells me 'you know what? Its a persian word..probably not a word from Indian origin'...and I lose it then...I go 'what? I want an indian name..there's no dearth of names in the vedas and hindu mythology..where is the need to go ask persians and russians to name my daughter....1 hr before the appointment you are telling me this....what will I do? I am bad at this..but you are worse' blah blah blah..I hv no idea why I was so melodramatic abt this :)
Anyway...so we fight..and Dips says 'ok...calm down...I will take this up...you cancel todays appointment...and I'll work on it'...He leaves for work in a huff..and we continue our argument over the phone. By this time, Bebloo is distracted and her breakfast is delayed. She's screaming and doesn't like the lack of attention. Bhavana (the nanny) wants to be of help and put an end to our misery so says
'didi...you please keep a small name for her' I go...'Oh is it? ok...then maybe 'Niyati' is good..' then I recall some others had said that they dint like 'Niyati' for her and I change my mind again...

2 hrs go by in all that and its almost 10. I realised there was no point pushing out the appointment....Dips and I would be in the same situation the next time around as well. We are just that way...somehow 'what's in a name' is not how we felt about it! But then, in a moment of calmness, I sat by myself and kept repeating 'Anshruta' and it somehow felt nice...and I felt comfortable that it did sound like a name that would suit the little baby wailing her head out for breakfast. It somehow felt right and I fast forwarded everything a few years down...and I liked the young girl I saw and liked that she would be called A-N-S-H-R-U-T-A. So I just called Dips minutes before he loses his signal in the tube and say 'I thnk she's Anshruta...I hv 10 min to get ready and go..and I thnk am going to do that...are you ok wth it' and he says 'I was ok all along..you were the one getting all confused and swaying coz mom, dad,greeshma, chirayu, bharat, ashwini, bhavana, chhavi, archita, shaji, rini, priti, anusha, vatsa, aparna, anup, amrutha all had 10 other name suggestions..and a 100 other opinions...go ahead and register her what you want to call her'....
I went to the registration office..and the receptionist goes..'oh u want to change her 1st name....you are coming almost a year after her birth...what's wrong wth 'Ashima' anyway'...
I almost said 'Ya right...now only ur opinion was lacking! Please can you spare that? I will have to make a 100 more calls to make up my mind again. Before I change my mind again, can we please just get done with the formality'
while filling the form...I thought again....called up Dips again...and confirmed ..and thn in neat block letters spelt it out wth confidence A-N-S-H-R-U-T-A
It did look unique..and I came out happily...called up Dips and said 'phew ...done'..and he goes 'did you take another appointment before you left the office? you shud have done that...so we can make another amend in a couple of weeks from now'...I said 'that lady at the reception will beat me up if I go back again to her'..thn he says 'no worries...I'll book the appointment and go next time...'

So till further notice, my li'l one will be called 'Anshruta Pandey'.

:) :)

3 comments:

Sheia said...

Enjoyed reading this one.

Today for some reason thought of you and your blog so just thought will look it up.

Keep Writing. :D

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