You named me What!?

Nicknames are most essential in life, more valuable than names.


Whats life without having a nickname? Sometimes the nickname sticks for life. The person is only called by it through out their life. There are so many instances in our life when we don't remember the real name of the person as we are so used to called the person by a nickname. It creates a bond within people. Nicknames are fond names, we do not give them to people we dislike. Other than in circumstances when friends secretly give nicknames to people, so that only they know who they are talking about.

A philosophical view says: What's in a name? Yet our identity is through our name. A given name at birth is something we have no control on. But a nickname is something we do have a say. Like my given name Anupama, all my friends, family and colleagues call me Anu. Only one who ever called me by full name was my mom and my childhood friend. When they would say my full name meant i had done something for which i was going to be scolded or penalised. Well my nickname is just short form of my given name. Think about a person having Satvinder as her / his name, and nickname is lucky. Now this is something very prevalent in North India. We can have a good laugh but then Satvinder all his/ her life will be called lucky. I have a friend whose name is Harvinder and all my life i have called him Harry. Never knew till the advent of Facebook that his real name was Harry. There are so many instances of this.

Some nicknames can make you smile, while some can scandalise you. There are times we keep nicknames for our loved one's on our phone, while we do not call them by this name. I recently had a shock moment when one of my friends husband has put her name in his phone as " Hitleerrr" now this was a complete shocker to me, as my friend is an easy going person. This made me think about why such a name for her!! Love has no reasoning and i guess their fun moment is this. Even though in europe people will look down at the name given to her by her spouse.
While we were at this conversation of what her name is on his phone, another friend told us that she knows someone who has put "Do not answer" as name for his wife. Yet when she calls he picks up. This got me seriously baffled and in splits of laughter. I would love to go through all my friends / strangers anyone who would let me see what name they have given to their spouses / partners.

I love the idea of a nickname. It's so personal and affectionate. There is fun and lightness when people are talking ; what's life without a few laughs ? But on a serious note it makes me think about where are we going with this fast moving world. Our ideas and way of life has evolved and even our love nicknames some rather old and some very creative stick out at times like sore thumbs.

Is their a direct connection about our relationship / feelings with the names we give to our loved one's? Especially in the smart phone age, many people give nicknames to their loved one's. This has seriously made me think about our mindset to how we perceive our relation.

We say that jokingly we have put this name ; Jokes are good and fun, but then there is a an underlying subconscious message which we are also projecting. Have we come in an age where we have to Rethink about how we give nicknames?

Relationships are like bubbles, handle them with care.