Thursday, September 07, 2006

What's in a name?

Dolly: My name is Dolly, My ID is 155. I will be doing my B.E. in Electronics. I have completed my schooling from Andhra Pradesh. My hobbies are singing, writing and reading.

XYZ: Dolly??? Isn’t that a pet name? What is your real name?

Dolly: Hmm…that is my real name.

XYZ: Oh okie…what ever.

That was a scene from one of my ragging sessions way back in college. In fact, I have had a similar conversation with various people at various points of my life till now.

To be honest, I never really liked my name while growing up. I used to have these "intelligent" arguments with ma asking her to give me one logical explanation for naming me Dolly. I used to ask her how would the name suit me when I was an 81 year old toothless, bespectacled woman. As one would expect, that conversation used to end with ma laughing away to glory and me, with a solemn frown on my face.

At one point, I almost won the argument when ma told me that I could change my name to whatever I wanted (only an affidavit was needed!!!!) . With a triumphant grin on my face, I set out googling for all possible names, which would be way better than Dolly. My friends though only saw me as Dolly n could not see any other name going with me and my nature. Damn them, I could do this alone very well. But, somewhere along the line, amidst all the googling, I realised something. My mother must have really loved this name like crazy to name her only daughter Dolly. It was her right to decide the name by which the world would know me and me trying to change it would somehow undermine her importance in my life. So, after a lot of thought, I made my decision. Dolly stayed.

People still go, "Dolly? Strange…isn’t that a pet name? What is your real name?" But, the difference is that I don’t care any more. The way I see it, the least I could do for ma was not to change my name and the most I can do for her is to love the name she chose for me . I chose to do both and I will never regret that decision one bit.

9 comments:

Shaan said...

dumbo....hehe now that sounds better than dolly....if u ever think of changin ur name....think of that...

I really can't understand why you have a inclination to crib abt ur name...dude...its a lovely name and u should be proud to have it :)

Dolly Dwivedi said...

yeah, as i said, i lik it dude!!! :)

Manju said...

look at the brighter side..smilie, shiny...dolly' much better than them na? :) welcum to the blogosphere;)

Yo-Yo said...

hi!! great blog! have you read 'the namesake'?? you would find it quite similar to your own identity crisis!!

Anonymous said...

dolly...ur name is just purrfect...it rhymes well with names like crazy...etc.. but one thing... uve grown up man!!! from where did u get all those senseful things in ur senseless brain????

Anonymous said...

me bad at blogs...infact this is first time im doing it...its me nikhil mittal:(

Dolly Dwivedi said...

@manju: yeah, thanx 4 sayin that manju! :)

@Niki: Thanx 4 droppin by n readin my blog though I know u dont like them! :)

Kartik Vittal said...

i can understand why someone cried...its touching

Anonymous said...

:)