Namesake

Often I marvel, so many people I know know me by so many different names, just like the different shades of affiliation with them.

Dad named me ' Navneet', meaning ' Butter' in sanskrit, without actually having any knowledge of sanskrit. Its only in class 9, when my sanskrit teacher teased me saying, " Navneet-komalam" - 'Soft like butter', that I went home and enlightened my father, unknowingly he had fetched a reason for my baldy-always sneering-cockeyed sanskrit teacher to pull my leg. Born on the New Year Day, that is the 1st of January 1976, Dad wished to name me something like 'New' and his cousin came up with the bright idea of 'Navneet'. (Nav means new in hindi)

I love this name. Firstly because that's the name my parents gave me. Secondly, since I never met anyone else of the same name in my childhood, I found it very unique. Courtesy the Army. Being a fauji's daughter I was always away from Punjab. Had we lived in our hometown, I would have definitely met plenty of girls and BOYs called 'Navneet'. And that's the third reason, its such a universal name.

So 'Navneet' was my school-name or say the formal name. But being an Indian, I guess its mandatory to have a 'Pet-name' or 'Ghar ka naam'. And that was 'Neetu'. My parents, brother, sister , blood relations, family friends all called me neetu or variations of neetu like ... 'nee2, nitu...' till I met Savita, by far my best friend till date. She always called me 'Navi'. Savi and Navi, we struck cords. Did names have to do something with that bonding I can't say.

The next name showered on me was again from friends. My two near and dear friends in college, Puneeta and Rashmi. I think it was Puneeta who named me 'Neets'. All those cards and tit-bits by them are addressed to Neets or variations again like neetzy, neetzu.

Come next, 'Gubi', coined by my boyfriend now husband, Kunal. We became close friends in "Young Officers Course" in the romantic rains of Mhow. Somewhere down the line he started calling me 'Gubdul'. Gubdul is word in Orissa for a cute, little, chubby kid. Though I was in no way any of those but I guess if you saw me with his eyes, I was always his Gubdul or Gubi.

But finally if you asked my two year old daughter, " what is mama's name?" She would say, "Mama". Though if asked Papa's name, she answers "Kunaaaan..." And by far that's the most beautiful and sweet-sounding name I could have, "Mama".