There is so much to say, where to start. I have lived a quarter of my life with an unconventional name, let's start from there. My name is a mixture of many aspirations. The meaning of my name is 'description' or to 'describe'. The Sanskrit word for which is 'varnan'. But my Bong family aspired to add a touch of ethnic authenticity and hence emerged the distorted version 'barnana' or as pronounced 'bornona'. It took me a good 7 yrs. of my life to get the pronunciation correct, so I do not blame anyone I meet who is left tongue twisted with it. My uncle aspired me to become a unique blend of description of the world but apparently forgot that it's easier to call someone with a sweet and simple name rather than a heavy, tongue twisting name. His logic was that if I have a name with 'B' I will be called among the first in the interviews and class attendances.
Another friend of mine recently observed that one's name has a huge effect on one's life and profession. Kanika observed "your name has the letter 'varn' in it and you are into linguistics that is the study of language". She believes that every person's name has an influence on his/her future, career and life. Like in my instance my name has 'varn' in it, which in Sanskrit means 'alphabet' and I have done my Phd. in Linguistics. Her name has 'kanak' in it and she is a jewellery designer. My little cousin 'Kushagro' is 10yrs. old and like his name is very sharp and intelligent, still have to wait to know how he turns out. Or my younger uncle 'Debashis' who is actually a blessing for his family as the Doctor who attempts to cure everyone. Though I won't push it too further to generalize this, as there are people with names like 'Mayawati' who have anything but empathy and humility, instead flaunt garlands of 1000rs. notes around their necks.
But in my case Kanika was bang on correct. I have done my Phd. in Linguistics, by choice or by chance not sure. I went to Korea as an exchange student and 'happened' to find a teaching job there on a student's visa and decided to make the most of it by joining the doctoral degree course. So I was teaching as I was working. Why linguistics? In my masters we were the first batch of students in Delhi Univ. with the new experimenting course work. In the new regime we were introduced to the study of linguistics and our batch collectively was hugely influenced by this one linguistics prof. who left a remarkable impression on our then impressionable minds. Thus I was hooked on to his classes and later on decided to pursue this one subject as I was freshly out of my master's course at that time. And the rest as they say is history. After graduating as the youngest Ph.d student in my university, I decided to return to India. I had couple of job offers there, but I preferred to test the waters here. I know that is ironic as people usually do the reverse.
So, what's in store for me? We will gradually find out as the story continues with its usual dose of hiccups and twists and turns. Stay put.
1 comment:
i agree with Kanika. All my siblings share 'Joo' which means 'pillar'. My brother's pillar is big and large 'Duckjoo'. He is a prof at one of the prominent university, which they think is the best in Korea. His major is 'Aerospace' and he thinks 'BIG'. My pillar is red, Hongjoo. No matter why I was named, I gave some 'meaning' into my name. I wanted to work as the 'fire pillar' featured in the Bible to warm people in the dark. My elder sister's pillar is jade, 'Minjoo'. As a traditional Korean painter, her artworks and activities are as precious as jade. My eldest sister's pillar is orchid, 'Hyejoo', the most feminine and fragile of the three of us and somewhat arrogant as a fabric designer and a professor, I think.
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