this is a question that plagues only people from West Bengal... we have this tradition of a bhalo naam (proper name) and a daak naam (name that you are addressed by people who are near and dear)... this name controversy is the entire plot of Jhumpa Lahiri's Namesake, with Gogol unable to decide which is better, this or Nikhil...
the R you are familiar with is her daak naam, which B had kept while we were still at college... what guts?
but i was determined when i went for delivery to Mom's that my child will have a proper name on the birth certificate... mine had this written verbatim: "A female child weighing 3 pounds was born to Mr ASM on January 1..."... how ludicrous, as if he delivered me?
so to avert that, i had decided that in my child's case (and i was determined it had to be a girl... B did not let me down on this one)... it had to be A...
so when R/A came, and i was back in form, B asked me, "what name shall we put for R in the birth certificate?" i said, "A"... and felt within, "my daughter, my initials and my Dad's too."
slightly proud on this achievement, we enrolled R in school, one after another, this being her sixth school and only at school is she known as A... the rest of the world knows her as R...
On What Is Happening in Bangladesh
4 months ago
1 comment:
so do I even though she will prhaps never know me! sounds dearer that. or will she, when A & B come down for a walk on the lawns of college 3 decades later & I'll b called to join over a cuppa at Coffee House!!!
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