Monday, January 14, 2008

The Game of the Name

There are four people, named Anand Roy, Rajiv Dutta, Nitin Bakshi and Sandeep Reddy.

Now Anand would be called Andy, Rajiv will become Dutta,, Nitin would stay Nitin and Sandeep Reddy may acquire a random name like Comet.

We have seen such things happen all the time around us.

There are two interesting things to mull over-

1. How do people give such names and the internal logic behind the game– e.g Roy is short enough but Anand will be Andy or why/how for some names we prefer surnames and in others first names?

2. And why even when these people change friends, cities, schools, jobs, they end up with the same name… andy, comet, and so & so forth?

Any thoughts.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i have lived in various parts of the country and in each of these places, i have been called by different names. so in my experiencd your theory doesn't hold ground.

Gauri Gharpure said...

why do I have a feeling that i have read these names and their transitions somewhere???

a name, and twisting it around, is possible only if you are in a circle close enough to accept and respond to the new version accorded to you.. like many of us have nicknames, but there's a very specific territory of use. I wud not appreciate, if not get offended, if a person outside my family or close association calls me by my nickname.. so is with the other acquired nicknames based on specific traits during the course of college life or professional tenure.. associating style/ status/or creating a pseudo identity based on names seems an altogether new fad though..