Today is one of "those" days. One of "those" days is when I wake up with a whale of a headache that shows no signs of abating with the waning of daylight :-( So in between banging my head against the wall, massaging my temple and forehead, closing my eyes, splashing cold water all over my face et al, I try to be proactive and think of a long term solution instead of resorting to these futile workarounds.
I am reminded of a little girl I saw on TV when I was a little girl myself...she was all of 10 years old, a native of Maldives, and she was featured on a programme that they used to air on DD (the SAARC programme). So this little girl stated very categorically, that she wanted to become a doctor when she grew up, because she had lost someone to heart disease. That is sheer determination...I mean it is one thing to say such a thing to yourself, but when you go ahead and say it on international TV, it takes courage and it shows your determination (well that's my take, and I hope and am quite sure that she is a doctor now!) So then, why was I speaking about the little--girl--who--has--now--grown--up--and--hopefully--become--a--cardiologist? Simple, I was inspired by her determination to find a long term and lasting solution to what she perceived to be a big and painful problem.
So what is it that stopped me from becoming a doctor specialising in "throbbing headaches" ? Were they not throbbing enough?Damn it they were, and they have always been! And they started when I was 16, so I was at that critical juncture where I could have made the all important decision to become a medico instead of a techie and find a cure to a bad "disease"...sigh..So this means that I was not determined enough when I was 16 :-
What it also means is that perhaps I am not so selfish after all (that's a relief, considering that over the past few days I have been making conclusions to the contrary almost every single waking hour!)...why not? Simply because if I were selfish enough, I would drop everything else and find a way to stop the throbbing headaches!Having said all that, I still wonder why they happen...the throbbing headaches i.e.
Hubby suggested that they are stress induced, but what's the stress in "ghode bechkar sona" (translated literally, it means "sell the horses and sleep") for 9 hours ???
I don't want to add an afterthought, because the entire piece looks like an afterthought to me, so instead of putting in the statuatory warning as a post script or a disclaimer, I shall put it in the main script itself :-) "If anyone feels dizzy or is found to be gnashing his/her teeth after reading this, rest assured, the intention was not to harm you beyond probably inducing a "throbbing headache" so that I have partners in investigative methodologies against them! :-)
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Nomenclature blues
What was it with Mallu parents, especially the Christians, of the previous generation, that they could not think of nice and creative names for their offspring?
How did an entire generation end up naming kids on the basis of the mother's name's first syllable+father's name's first syllable (and various other similar combinations)? Was it some kind of food product that they all ate at around that time (read the 70's and the 80's)? Was it something like endosulfan that was sprayed on the food grains of the unsuspecting junta?
Take the case of a lady I know. Her husband and she, obviously delighted at the birth of the khandaan ka chiraag (translated literally, that reads "family's lamp") in 1988, decided to give him a very unique name -- Pachjo *...uh huh. I am sure it must have been unique in some circles (I can visualise a number of my north Indian friends raise their eyebrows if they hear this name), but if you heard the logic they used to arrive upon this name, you would raise your eyebrows to ad-infinitum. The kid should have been named "Pachaveetil Jose *", Pachaveetil * being the family name, and Jose being the kid's christian name. So they decided, instead of the usual mother's name and father's name rigmarole, let us do something unique and name him from his own name (first derivative et al...they must be geniuses at differential calculus!).
When their second chiraag was born 3 years later, they ran out of unique ideas, and perhaps realised too that the first born's name was not so unique in Mallu Land after all, so they named the little one Sachjo *... did you ask "what was the logic?" Well, it was just to match or rather rhyme with the elder sibling's name (why does the second child have to suffer such injustices???)
I know many more cases and most are hilarious, and most of the then-kids-now-adults, resent their silly names :-) One good outcome though, has been that these silly-named adults consult a whole lot of baby name sites and other baby naming literature, before they name their kids.
It's taken an entire lifetime (well almost...) to rectify the mistakes of the previous generation. Here's hoping that the syndrome that led to this irrational nomenclature is not hereditary, and more so, that it does not manifest in some generation to come :D
* --> Names have been changed to protect the identity of the individuals concerned (or rather, to protect myself from their ire :-P )
How did an entire generation end up naming kids on the basis of the mother's name's first syllable+father's name's first syllable (and various other similar combinations)? Was it some kind of food product that they all ate at around that time (read the 70's and the 80's)? Was it something like endosulfan that was sprayed on the food grains of the unsuspecting junta?
Take the case of a lady I know. Her husband and she, obviously delighted at the birth of the khandaan ka chiraag (translated literally, that reads "family's lamp") in 1988, decided to give him a very unique name -- Pachjo *...uh huh. I am sure it must have been unique in some circles (I can visualise a number of my north Indian friends raise their eyebrows if they hear this name), but if you heard the logic they used to arrive upon this name, you would raise your eyebrows to ad-infinitum. The kid should have been named "Pachaveetil Jose *", Pachaveetil * being the family name, and Jose being the kid's christian name. So they decided, instead of the usual mother's name and father's name rigmarole, let us do something unique and name him from his own name (first derivative et al...they must be geniuses at differential calculus!).
When their second chiraag was born 3 years later, they ran out of unique ideas, and perhaps realised too that the first born's name was not so unique in Mallu Land after all, so they named the little one Sachjo *... did you ask "what was the logic?" Well, it was just to match or rather rhyme with the elder sibling's name (why does the second child have to suffer such injustices???)
I know many more cases and most are hilarious, and most of the then-kids-now-adults, resent their silly names :-) One good outcome though, has been that these silly-named adults consult a whole lot of baby name sites and other baby naming literature, before they name their kids.
It's taken an entire lifetime (well almost...) to rectify the mistakes of the previous generation. Here's hoping that the syndrome that led to this irrational nomenclature is not hereditary, and more so, that it does not manifest in some generation to come :D
* --> Names have been changed to protect the identity of the individuals concerned (or rather, to protect myself from their ire :-P )
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