The Nutty Game of Nicknames!

Pinks, Swats, Aku, Vaiby, Shubhu, Rinku, Vics, Adi… nicknames galore wherever thou shalt lookst…
What a beautiful form of expression this is!
Something so warm, cuddly and personal about it, that it immediately endears and binds both the giver and the recipient!

I for one, have grown up with a volley of names addressed to me and I love each one of these expressions as though they were music to my ears. People from my toddler years know me as Ruchi, Ruchu, Ruchirum, Ruchooo, Ruchs….besides the Multani concoctions like Baghella, Bagghi, Bagadbilla, Matki…Please don’t ask me for literal translations because as you can deem by the sound effect of these inane fabricated words, that they are not very flattering and not the least bit interesting enough for you or anyone for that matter, to comprehend them seriously as a legacy to be carried forward.

Then of course is my official name, Suruchi, which my parents had so appropriately hand picked for their one in a million offspring…that’s me at your humble service. It’s a name that often evoked contrasting emotions…At times I was proud of it for it is a rare name and quite traditional…I never had to bear the humiliation of facing any comedy of errors risen through mistaken identities, because anywhere and everywhere there has been just one of me…figuratively and statistically. Imagine the upside of bearing the stylish arrogance of being a Suruchi in a room full of Nehas, Sonias and Poojas…mmm…too good.

However, whenever I made a phone call and god forbid the domestic help would pick up…I would have to encounter a battleground crisis in making him repeat my name to carry forward the message to my friend… “Kya naam bola baby aapne...Suchi...acha Ruchi… oho…Shuchi ya Shruti…?” is what I heard before I banged the phone on his face. And I could just meditate… “@$^%$#@... never mind u twerp, the “baby” would spend her father’s hard earned dough and call again…you please rest in peace…”

And then youth dawned and enticing introductions came in my social life buzzing with latent activity…
Soon ‘Suruchi’ was brewed and blended and reinvented for by itself, the public in general had great apprehensions and even mortal fears of using the whole of it. ‘Suruchi’…Some wise guy even had the audacity to comment that whenever he started uttering my name, he fell asleep by the time it came to an end…Hmpf…the world is brimming with thoughtless characters who know not how they err till thank god for justice as on the Judgment day they should have to answer for this all…!

Suru, Susu, Suchi were the innovations of some dim minds that did not bother to go through much thought process…
The “greater” minds came up with sushi, kiddo, cootchie, bebe, sweetie, sushu, surams and other unmouthable oddities…

Thank you my dear friends for presenting me to the world in such a thundering blast that I often succumbed with the lightning that fell with it. Aw…naah…actually I love listening to these endearments, differing from person to person…
And ask my dear beloved of what he calls me and be prepared to be drowned in a list of at least 20 (being an understatement) of names he has for me…baby, jaanu, sweetu are the only safe ones that I can oblige to disclose here…for the rest are almost blasphemous, inexplicable or just simply insane. So I spare the poor soul.

Most of my friends and family have also been blessed with names that I bestow in all my magnanimity on them…usually without much of a thought process….Ankur is Anik, Swati is called Swats, Ritika is Ritz, Anita is Ani, Shweta is Shwets, Kittu is KitKat, Gauri is Gauriya, Nidhi is Nids, Ridhi is Raddison, Vivek is Viv, Tushar is Tushki, Imran is Immi, Vaibhav is Vaiby and Vibhor is Vibsy…Aakriti is Aku while Srinivas is Sri, etc, etc…and anyone acting dumb enough is perpetually a Dodo…my eternal favourite!

How I love addressing them with my own names…again perhaps symptoms of a human hunger for being able to act like God…give others something of our own…determine their identities and quantum of how precious they are to us through names we judiciously or just on a whim pick for them. Whatever the motives, it is a nutty game that spices up life….so play on! And if I have not addressed you with a nickname yet or you chosen a flattering one for me still…
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But we have promises to keep,
And miles to go before we sleep!”