"Mama..."
"Maaaamaaa..."
"Mamoooiii..."
...a little cute voice, wakes me up everyday. One could never ask for a better wake up call than this. Past few days, the reason for my sleep was mainly to hear this wake up call. I gave up counting the number of goose bumps ran all over my body, whenever I heard that cute voice. The very moment I shiver to get rid of the goose bumps, my heart would be stolen. I bloody need to gain reserves to promote this robbery. It is a joy beyond my imagination. ....Yes, my niece is in town.
She is the cutest thing happened to our family recently. Well, she has almost completed her 2nd year in this world, but it feels like it was just yesterday. There are so many cherishing moments she brought to our family, which changed the entire climate in our family. One of those moment was her naming ceremony (which also brought out the bright colours of few people in our family for good ;-)).
I have never been part of the naming process before, but I always wanted to be part of one. The uniqueness of few names have always succeeded in fascinating me, especially in my family (ex: Elakiya & Chakravarthi). Well, that wait was over with my niece's naming ceremony. Being a privileged uncle, I have a major role in this process, well, in every custom of my niece for that matter.
Naming is one of the very important custom in our culture; it is a yet another family get together; well celebrated family occasion; long procedures and formalities; pouring gifts; writing the name in a rice; uttering the name thrice; decorating the kid with jewels; feast, sweets, snacks, drinks etc etc; ...and my niece is first in her generation, so it is a double treat for our family.
Vasanth (my brother-in-law) was in a hurry, he just had a week left in India, so my niece must be named before he leaves. Fine, but what to name? and How? As you know, it is a huge responsibility, since name plays an important role in everyone's life and of course everyone in the family has expectations.
Dad: Should be a Tamil name, should not represent any caste or religion.
Mom: Should be easily pronounced. My grand mom's name?
Wife: I am OK with whatever you all choose.
Sister: Must be in Tamil, modern and rare.
Vasanth: Modern, elegant, should be within first 5 alphabets.
Vasanth's Dad & Mom: Maybe we can improvise our family God's name?
Grandpa: Let me ask Mr. Karunanidhi, In 1949..., I tried the same to name my son.
Others: It must abide to astrology, star sign & numerology.
Expectations eh?
We cannot satisfy everyone, but we need to satisfy somehow, ha! is that not called democracy? well, we decided to go for a partial democratic process, after all we are in a country which is one of the biggest democracy in the world.
The Process: Everyone must come up with suggestions; every suggested name will receive votes; voted names will make to the next round; everyone must choose one best name from their list out of the voted ones; the selected list will be given to the parents (Vasanth & Tamil) to choose one out of them.
Simple, but exciting. I was craving for this opportunity and I damn wanted to select a name which is the favorite for everyone. Just a silly pride, which I can carry for my lifetime, which made me to dig through so many things (dictionaries, internet, discussions, novels, poems, verses, quotes, movies etc) and came up with a list. Others might have done the same? Let us see... It all began on February 14th 2011 @ 7:00 pm.
Round 1 (Suggestions & Votes):
Vasanth’s Mom: Yadhavi, Neha, Poovizhi(1), Samyuktha, Agathiya (1) : Poovizhi, Agathiya
Vasanth’s Dad: Deepsika(1), Anushya, Yaazhini(3), Aadhirai, Aathra : Deepsika, Yaazhini
Tamil: Yaazh(2), Pavazh(1), Kural, Mithra, Kalki, Agal : Yaazh, Pavazh
Dad: Aadhavi(1), Kuvalai, Sudar(1), Vetri : Aadhavi, Sudar
Vasanth: Dhaya(3), Emaya, Arpana : Dhaya
Wife: Nethra, Sakthi(1) : Sakthi
Me: Aadhini, Imizh, Adheethi(3), Mugil, Kayalini, Pirai(1), Oli, Mozhi(1) : Adheethi, Pirai, Mozhi
Round 2 (Choose the best):
Vasanth’s Mom: Poovizhi, Agathiya
Vasanth’s Dad: Deepsika, Yaazhini
Tamil: Yaazh, Pavazh
Dad: Aadhavi, Sudar
Vasanth: Dhaya
Wife: Sakthi
Me: Adheethi, Mozhi
...and the finalists are:
Agathiya
Yaazhini / Yaazh
Sudar
Dhaya
Sakthi
Adheethi
That is it, all done. It is now with Tamil & Vasanth to decide; what could be the choice? what would be the name? pressure mounted, phones silenced, TV muted along with some out of context thoughts; we breathed nervousness & excitement. I just could not hide my anxiety, hence I started to utter the meanings, pros & cons of each names. I was like a student who was minutes away from the results; what could it be? I needed someone to calm me down, hence I walked to my niece and saw her calm sleeping face; she was like a rose bud, could not stop my stare at her. Few minutes later, I was blessed with calmness.
A paper came flying across my shoulder towards my niece who was sleeping in front of me. I quickly caught that to protect her sleep, it had the list of names in the final round. Tamil & Vasanth were standing behind me, I gave an annoying look at Tamil and glanced at my niece to ensure that she is still asleep, phew! with a great relief, I glanced at the paper again. Haaaaa! I could not believe my eyes; noticed that one of the name in that list was underlined; understanding my struggle to speak out, Vasanth pronounced the chosen name. Hoooooraaaahhhh! I shouted in joy... ssshhhhhhhhh! said Tamil, it was Tamil now, who gave me an annoying look and protected my niece's sleep.
The next day morning, we were all like an obedient devotees, gathered in the temple and pronounced Adheethi in one voice in her ears, to prepare her for the world beyond her imagination.
Note: Adheethi = is an improvised version of a word Adheetham which means "much more, beyond imagination".
"Maaaamaaa..."
"Mamoooiii..."
...a little cute voice, wakes me up everyday. One could never ask for a better wake up call than this. Past few days, the reason for my sleep was mainly to hear this wake up call. I gave up counting the number of goose bumps ran all over my body, whenever I heard that cute voice. The very moment I shiver to get rid of the goose bumps, my heart would be stolen. I bloody need to gain reserves to promote this robbery. It is a joy beyond my imagination. ....Yes, my niece is in town.
She is the cutest thing happened to our family recently. Well, she has almost completed her 2nd year in this world, but it feels like it was just yesterday. There are so many cherishing moments she brought to our family, which changed the entire climate in our family. One of those moment was her naming ceremony (which also brought out the bright colours of few people in our family for good ;-)).
I have never been part of the naming process before, but I always wanted to be part of one. The uniqueness of few names have always succeeded in fascinating me, especially in my family (ex: Elakiya & Chakravarthi). Well, that wait was over with my niece's naming ceremony. Being a privileged uncle, I have a major role in this process, well, in every custom of my niece for that matter.
Naming is one of the very important custom in our culture; it is a yet another family get together; well celebrated family occasion; long procedures and formalities; pouring gifts; writing the name in a rice; uttering the name thrice; decorating the kid with jewels; feast, sweets, snacks, drinks etc etc; ...and my niece is first in her generation, so it is a double treat for our family.
Vasanth (my brother-in-law) was in a hurry, he just had a week left in India, so my niece must be named before he leaves. Fine, but what to name? and How? As you know, it is a huge responsibility, since name plays an important role in everyone's life and of course everyone in the family has expectations.
Dad: Should be a Tamil name, should not represent any caste or religion.
Mom: Should be easily pronounced. My grand mom's name?
Wife: I am OK with whatever you all choose.
Sister: Must be in Tamil, modern and rare.
Vasanth: Modern, elegant, should be within first 5 alphabets.
Vasanth's Dad & Mom: Maybe we can improvise our family God's name?
Grandpa: Let me ask Mr. Karunanidhi, In 1949..., I tried the same to name my son.
Others: It must abide to astrology, star sign & numerology.
Expectations eh?
We cannot satisfy everyone, but we need to satisfy somehow, ha! is that not called democracy? well, we decided to go for a partial democratic process, after all we are in a country which is one of the biggest democracy in the world.
The Process: Everyone must come up with suggestions; every suggested name will receive votes; voted names will make to the next round; everyone must choose one best name from their list out of the voted ones; the selected list will be given to the parents (Vasanth & Tamil) to choose one out of them.
Simple, but exciting. I was craving for this opportunity and I damn wanted to select a name which is the favorite for everyone. Just a silly pride, which I can carry for my lifetime, which made me to dig through so many things (dictionaries, internet, discussions, novels, poems, verses, quotes, movies etc) and came up with a list. Others might have done the same? Let us see... It all began on February 14th 2011 @ 7:00 pm.
Round 1 (Suggestions & Votes):
Vasanth’s Mom: Yadhavi, Neha, Poovizhi(1), Samyuktha, Agathiya (1) : Poovizhi, Agathiya
Vasanth’s Dad: Deepsika(1), Anushya, Yaazhini(3), Aadhirai, Aathra : Deepsika, Yaazhini
Tamil: Yaazh(2), Pavazh(1), Kural, Mithra, Kalki, Agal : Yaazh, Pavazh
Dad: Aadhavi(1), Kuvalai, Sudar(1), Vetri : Aadhavi, Sudar
Vasanth: Dhaya(3), Emaya, Arpana : Dhaya
Wife: Nethra, Sakthi(1) : Sakthi
Me: Aadhini, Imizh, Adheethi(3), Mugil, Kayalini, Pirai(1), Oli, Mozhi(1) : Adheethi, Pirai, Mozhi
Round 2 (Choose the best):
Vasanth’s Mom: Poovizhi, Agathiya
 |
| My niece in action |
Tamil: Yaazh, Pavazh
Dad: Aadhavi, Sudar
Vasanth: Dhaya
Wife: Sakthi
Me: Adheethi, Mozhi
...and the finalists are:
Agathiya
Yaazhini / Yaazh
Sudar
Dhaya
Sakthi
Adheethi
That is it, all done. It is now with Tamil & Vasanth to decide; what could be the choice? what would be the name? pressure mounted, phones silenced, TV muted along with some out of context thoughts; we breathed nervousness & excitement. I just could not hide my anxiety, hence I started to utter the meanings, pros & cons of each names. I was like a student who was minutes away from the results; what could it be? I needed someone to calm me down, hence I walked to my niece and saw her calm sleeping face; she was like a rose bud, could not stop my stare at her. Few minutes later, I was blessed with calmness.
A paper came flying across my shoulder towards my niece who was sleeping in front of me. I quickly caught that to protect her sleep, it had the list of names in the final round. Tamil & Vasanth were standing behind me, I gave an annoying look at Tamil and glanced at my niece to ensure that she is still asleep, phew! with a great relief, I glanced at the paper again. Haaaaa! I could not believe my eyes; noticed that one of the name in that list was underlined; understanding my struggle to speak out, Vasanth pronounced the chosen name. Hoooooraaaahhhh! I shouted in joy... ssshhhhhhhhh! said Tamil, it was Tamil now, who gave me an annoying look and protected my niece's sleep.
The next day morning, we were all like an obedient devotees, gathered in the temple and pronounced Adheethi in one voice in her ears, to prepare her for the world beyond her imagination.
Note: Adheethi = is an improvised version of a word Adheetham which means "much more, beyond imagination".
