Friday, April 17, 2009

"What's in a name?”

What was his name? We wondered…..But "What's in a name?”

Though he is not on the dot punctual but every morning around 7 the bell would ring and without asking who it was one us would scream “coming”. My mother opens the door most often for him and in case he is not on time, she will ask chantingly “Bhaiya got late today?” I never heard of any response. I guess the time he took thinking for some excuse the simultaneous task of refilling the milk cans got over. And my mother without realizing that she asked him a question would collect the milk cans and shut the door.

Once in two or three years when he will ask for a price hike my mother would use her bargaining skills efficiently and say “Bhaiya you are serving us since ten years(hearing this since I was five), we deserve some discount.” Authoritatively she will quote a price for the monthly bill to which he will agree submissively.

I sometimes wondered did he acknowledge that in last 20 years I have grown from the little girl who used to rush to open the door at 7 in the morning to collect milk cans from him to young and independent (or rather semi-dependent) lass.

Last Saturday I was busy reading newspaper (obviously gossip column) bell rang which I completely ignored and dedicatedly continued reading newspaper. My mom first completed the ritual of screaming “Coming” and then opened the door.
“Bhaiya got late today?” she asked. But this time I heard a reply
“Didi, Aafreeda is getting married” he said.
“Aafreeda?”
“My daughter” presenting a box of sweets he said “Nikah is on 29th”
“Congratulations” said my mother

After shutting the door she asked"did u know his daughter's name is Aafreeda?"
Obviously I knew what she meant. within a split sec she asked "What is his name?"
We wondered....22years..and we never knew his name..But ironically enough...."What's in a name?”

26 comments:

Sayani said...

Thats a mature and reflectory post nam. Whats in a name is so true but all these terrible situations in world are just because of "in a name"

We forget the basic origin we are human ? how pathetic and catastrophic it seems , paralyzed by "name"

great post

its_me said...

yaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy,,,,,,, i am so glad u liked it
:)

luckysanjana said...

lovely post and you have such wonderful narrative ability and also an insight in to emotions........in one so young.........and youve prompted me for my next post " whats in a name". thanks for dropping by...........yeah we keep referring to people as bhaiya, didi, aunty and uncle........somehow takes away their individuality......so i prefer to add their names to it.....like i call my carpenter Shankar bhaiya.....kind of personal................

Anonymous said...

very eclectic and it reflects the panorama of a writer's maverick mental capabilities........ more glory to u..

Anonymous said...

the best thing i liked in d whole post is that gossip column thing.... ;)
jokes apart it was really nice reading it..

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

don't know what to write
as m not a good writer like uuuuuuuu
bt really a good job
what an imaginatn power
grrrrrrrrrrr8

Unknown said...

Wow...While reading it i felt as if im reading the work of some professional. U r definitely growing as a writer.
The idea was very well quoted...we obviously take so many things and persons for granted in our life without which our life would not be as it is.

abhishek srivastava said...

According to me the whole moral of these present sets of paragraphs is that “what’s in a name”. The family whose story we are reading in the present paragraphs tells us that the members of the family who are consuming the milk of milkman from last 22 years they don’t even feel important to ask the name of milkman. According to them their only area of interest is milk which the milkman is providing to them. The story also tells us that we get use to of doing things which we do daily in our routine, as in family they daily collect milk from milkman with same comment “Bhaiya got late today?”.But finally according to me “Name plays the important part in the life because it is the individual’s identity provided to us by society and family”.

Unknown said...

Well.. there I read something as fresh as my morning tea...

"If you would not be forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten
Either write things worth reading
Or do things worth reading"[someone said it, Benjamin Franklin. perhaps].

That was good reading, clear and intelligible.

its_me said...

well abhishek thanks for visiting my blog...but look around and you will many such people you meet daily but don't know there name...

Akanksha said...

Pata tha muje tera dimag hi yaha tak ja sakta he "whats in the name?".......

keep up the good work...... njoy:)

richa said...

felt great to read such an article which has a deep insight into emotions.title itself gives the jist of the article.
gud job done!!:)

richa said...

felt nice to come across such a deep insight into emotions.and the title itself is the jist of the article n so vry true.
gud job done:)

laddu said...

oh man..it was very touching..we all r like dis only....even i dont know d name of my maid.. will ask her tom itself....
i read d story cos of the title and found ity so interesting.. this title matches the title of one of my posts....c dis

http://laddu-chocolates.blogspot.com/2009/02/whats-in-name.html

Rahul said...

can i ask wots ur name???? ms. its_me

nyways its written very beutifully nd of such things we really never think of in our daily life!!!

AJ ! Serendipity !!! said...

Hell! Touching!!!

My dad loaned our milkman some money to expand his businesss: Some 20 years ago. He still gives us a discount on the monthly bill , instead of repaying the debt or the interest.
I guess both parties like it that way :)

Sayani said...

Hey you have been tagged and awarded so check out :)

keep well
regards
sayani

Fragnant Thoughts said...

hey babes, well written and i am impressed , but still there is alot in a name???? even if few doesnt care about it , thr r alot who get bothered for it.

Tarun Saxena said...

ok....even I realised rite now tht I dont know the name of my "Doodh-wala"..
very deep and electric post,remember I advised u to take a career in writing.....I still think the same

Impressionist said...

hey that was really good! :)
keep up

-I

Ekta said...

such a sweet post!...and well wer finally beginning to realise..."A name is a name is just a name"!

DesiBlab said...

Good one. Short and sweet!

Rahul "MC MaVeRiCk" Ray said...

hmmmm.... a short masterpiece indeed!!

Unknown said...

very true! good insights :) very interesting thought. there are so many people that we know of on a nameless basis. and yet, the relationship we begin to share with such folks is everlasting! lovely piece.

Anonymous said...

relates with reality...excellent writeup.....