Saturday, June 7, 2008

What's in a name?!

I remember reading somewhere that a person's name is just a way of addressing that person and that it does not measure their character or their way in life. And there there was another source of wisdom that reiterated the way a name could change destiny. And now, I'm confused.

Well... what's with this 'philosophy' you ask me? It all began because I asked 'What's in a name?'

I was sitting at a friend's place, leafing through a magazine that was there as she went inside for some reason (her mom wanted her help in the kitchen). My hands turned the pages lazily as I saw pages after pages of celebrity gossip. Rakhee Sawanth this... Amitabh Bacchan that.... It was then that I spotted the picture of some actress. The caption told me her name was Priyanka Kothari. And I was a little surprised. I distinctly remember seeing her face on numerous channels when she was first introduced into the film industry. She had done a Tamil film and her name at that time had been Amodha. I did like her then... she seemed sweet and cute. But in the picture that greeted me in the magazine I held in my hands; "sweet" and "cute" were the two adjectives that would never have went well with it. My friend walked in with coffee in hand and handed me a cup. I gratefully took it.

"Hey... isn't she Nisha Kothari?" she grabbed the book from my hand and stared at the picture.
"It says Priyanka." I deadpanned.

She shrugged with non-chalance and dropped the book down.
"I guess she's changed her name again. Numerology... they've deep beliefs in those kind of things! You know... if it doesn't work for them with the names they have, they'll change it."
I nodded, though I didn't seem to understand it much.

Shakespeare seemed to think the name was hardly important once. But these days, I'm sure he'd be eating his own words if he was alive in modern India.

"What's in a name?" you ask. And the answer is evident.
"Almost everything!"

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