Monday, March 7, 2011

Naming!!

"Girl!! Girl again..."... that is the sound that must have greeted me on my arrival in this world. I am the second child, second daughter for my parents, who are brain-washed into believing that a son is a treasure to get and a daughter is alright - may be one - but not more!!

In fact, my mother herself was born after a lot of prayers to God by her grandmother and her mother for bestowing her parents with a daughter to carry the name of the Goddess of the family!!

In my case, I arrived within 30 months after my elder sister who was welcomed on her birth with so much happiness by the parents, and grand-parents - four of them - and all the uncles and aunts... everyone wanted the name chosen by them to be her name.. hence she got a combination of names selected by both the grand fathers - and I am absolutely sure that she is the only one in this world carrying this particular name! Of course, she lives up to the name!!

Coming back to my story, looks like no one bothered to think of a name for me. May be after a few days, when one of my grandfather's girl students peeped into the room where my mother was nursing me and asked my grandmother what baby it is - girl or boy - my grand mother told her in frustration that it is "a girl - just like you"... the name of that girl was given to me by my grandmother! Yeah, her name is Uma Maheswari and hence I got my name! How I wish she had a name like "Pi to the power of infinity" or something like that!! Thank my mother for not thinking of killing me quietly out of her frustration! Thanks for allowing me to grow and live in this world!

I grew up into one fat little kid - no fuss for eating anything - no childhood sickness - nothing for the mother to "worry " about me - so an easy case for getting neglected. I managed to get good number of nick-names for my looks... "gundu pooshanikai" "bablimas" etc. - all indicating the colour of my skin ( which is different from 99% of the people around me) and my healthy constitution.

I love my survivor status!!





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