Tuesday, March 16, 2010

My Name is Vinumon (MNIV)


I have been thinking for a long time about starting my own blog. In fact I created a webpage- but couldn’t find a nice topic to start blogging with. Thanks to Rejath, I got one yesterday.
I was spending a wonderful evening in the company of a few friends. We had a nice time gossiping and pulling each other’s leg, when the discussion slowly moved to a topic which has become an inevitable element of any chats we have recently – Marriage alliances.
 Most of my friends have their parents looking for ‘eligible’ (a euphemism for rich) brides for them. My dad somehow seems to be least interested in exercising this privilege that ‘I have left’ for him. I thought of telling Rejath (an experienced and knowledgeable guy in this field) to look for suitable girls for me as well when he is bored looking for himself. He wasted no time to start teasing me about my name- “Vinumon S”. According to him no girl would be willing to marry a person with such ridiculous a name!
 We all had a good laugh on the comments that followed. Vijay was saying that my name would at the most be appropriate for a 7th standard guy wearing knickers and carrying a water bottle to school!
Rejath was generous enough to provide a solution also – Change my name as soon as possible!!
(To my non-Keralite friends, who have nothing better to do in your lives than going through my blog, ‘Vinumon’ is not a conventional style of naming. “Mon” (meaning son) is actually a way that you can affectionately call any kid. Parents and elders mostly address younger boys in that way. It would be like naming a kid as ‘Rahul beta’ or ‘Pooja beti’ in hindi, only difference being that it is a bit common in Kerala. Actually there are quite a number of ‘mons’ and ‘mols’(daughter) in my state, owing to the excess affection of their parents)
 Though they were all playful, it left me thinking for a while. I was taken back to a few confusions which lingered my mind some time during my high school days and college days.
The story starts about 25 years back.
13th June, 1984 – That was when my parents had the ‘privilege’ to hold me in their divine hands. Even months before that, they had been thinking about an apt name for the useless kid they were about to receive. Being a sincere devotee of lord Ganapati, my mom had no second thoughts in naming me as “Vinayak”, so that they can conveniently call me “Vinu” at home. The plan was supposed to be implemented in 2 phases – to call me Vinu from the time I was born, and admit me to school with Vinayak as my name.
(The name Vinu is supposed to have been inspired from the name of the insane (!!) hero of the erstwhile block buster Malayalam movie- Thaalavattam)
The 1st phase worked really well, and the name Vinu caught up among neighbors and relatives.
Problem arose when it was time to implement the 2nd phase.
I got so used to my pet name and more addicted to the affectionate way of calling “Vinumonee” and I wanted to be named as Vinumon. The name Vinayak didn’t make much sense to me at that point of time. My parents’ version of the story goes that they ‘tried their best’ to convince me to put my name as Vinayak but I seemed to have been too adamant!
So my parents, who never bothered to ask my opinion on selecting even a shirt or pant for myself until I was 16, finally “succumbed to the pressure” of the 4 year old me!!
And I got my name, officially!!!
Things were going really fine until I was in 6th standard. It was then that my class mates started rhyming it with ‘certain abuses’ in Malayalam and having dumb jokes like “Your grandson will have to address you as ‘Vinumon Apooppaa’. Though I used to get pissed off (and mentally abused them up to 3 previous generations), I mostly warded it off with a smile, trying hard to divert the topic to something harmless.
Actually, in school I had a company. A very close friend of mine, named Madhavankutty! I pitied him for his name. I would have hanged myself if I were named Madhavankutty !   
Ok, back to the topic, the teasing continued when I was in school and in the initial days of college. But it gradually stopped as people knew me closer. Most of my friends address me as “Vinu” and colleagues as “Vinumon” and I was comfortable with either. Still, there are a few buggers (mostly my close friends) who find my name amusing enough to drag it to any discussion and make fun of me. Now it has reached the limit that I am questioned with my right to ‘continue my legacy’
I think it is high time that I defend myself. Here it goes..
Go to any fish market and shout the name Lakshmi (or Arun) – you will see at least 5 faces turning back, including the customers, sellers, sweepers and most probably a few stray dogs as well. Same applies to the widespread names like Rahul, Kiran etc. As we go to the northern states they just choose from a limited basket of names. There are 17 Abhisheks and 17 Amits currently studying in IIMC! My point here is not to make fun of any name or to say that having a common name is stupid. It doesn’t serve the purpose of identifying a person. In that respect, my name identifies me uniquely. I was the only Vinumon in my schools, college, Infosys as well as in IIMC.
We have a former UN diplomat and Minister of State for foreign Affairs, called ‘Shashi’ ! We had an education minister called ‘Baby’ and industry minister called ‘Kunjalikkutty’. We are all proud of the Oscar winner “Resool Pookkutty”. I don’t think any of them ever felt that their name was a handicap to reach the position where they did. They all got married as well!
For that matter, will someone be considered as great and able, if they are named as Alexander or Asoka? Ironically our country has no dearth for God and Goddess-named convicts, including rapists and frauds and pimps!
My point is that a name doesn’t make anyone special nor does it demean anyone. Name is not a title that one earns because of his attributes or talents. It is just an easy way to identify one from the million others.  
In Kerala, naming a baby also gives a great opportunity for the parents to unleash their creativity. It is not uncommon when parents in Kerala invent names for their kids by appending their own names in some convenient way after trying numerous permutations and combinations. Less creative parents name their children with simple meaningless words as Byju, Jijo, Saju, Babu, Raju, Chinnu, Ranju…
My name at least has a meaning. Vinu in Sanskrit means “to spread”.
(I must admit that my parents had no clue about the meaning of Vinu when they actually named me. I found out that I was a meaningful person when I spotted it in some Sanskrit dictionary that I came across in a book store. I had a tough time explaining “What all I can spread” during my NITIE interview, when I boasted about the profound meaning behind my name. )
Ohh God!, having written this much I actually am feeling that my name is the best!
Even if it is not the best, it doesn’t give you a reason to make fun of me anymore if you have read my blog! I have batch mates in IIMC named Petchiappan, Thippeswamy, Korangi etc. Compared to theirs, mine is at least easier to remember and call (Sorry guys, if you ever happen to read this)
I had actually given serious thoughts on changing my name during a few occasions – like before appearing for 10th exam and while I applied for my passport, when the formalities would have been minimal. Even now in case I want to change my name, it is just a matter of filling a few forms and publishing in Gazette. But I am lead by a few reasons which I value more than the ‘appeal’ of my name.
I had the privilege to see my ‘ridiculous’ name in many coveted places, including the final selection lists of Infosys as well as that of 3 IIMs. God willing, I am sure it would again adorn many positions in the years to come. I somehow feel that my name has always brought me luck.  And this is one among the few things that my mother left for me. There could be some reason, unknown to me, that my parents had when they chose this name.
So whatever it be, I am not willing to change my name, just for the sake of any dumb girl or her even dumber Dad, even if it means that I will have to spend my life as a bachelor. Moreover I feel that if someone is destined to become my partner, she will definitely come to me, irrespective of my name. This could in effect be a good screening process to ward off the incompatible ones amongst the fairer sex.
Vinumon Rockzzz !!
My sincere thanks to Rejath for my first blog.
Between,’Rejath’ in Malayalam means “silver”. I wonder what his parents thought while naming him- that he not as precious as Gold? I am sure if he had brothers they would have been named with other low value metals like Chembu(Copper) or Pithala(Brass) !!

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12 comments:

അനിയന്‍കുട്ടി | aniyankutti said...

ഹിഹിഹിഹി.. ഇഷ്ടായി മോനൂ.. :)

Vinumon S said...

Thanks aniyankuttii... :)

Unknown said...

Very nice 1st blog da... keep writing :)

Vijay said...

yes ...excellent blog ... y is it that the comments are not being shown on the frontpage? .... for u the topics for writing a blog are immense .... jst think of wht u do everyday... wht all u come across ... may be i can help u to dig out ur own stories from the past with obvious proofs and facts .... "tintumonte ...sorry ... Vinumonte leela vilasams :D " ! ... keep going ... these things are the only entertainments when i am at my office.

Abhinav Viswambharan said...

"Stop laughing you idiot...let us sleep"

Believe it or not, this is what I get to hear after reading this post of yours. It's 1130pm here and my roomies have been trying to get some sleep after a deployment.

I saw your mail yesterday, but was stuck in the midst of the deployment hence couldn't read it till today.

Awesome read!

Nice humor sense and apt timings of the ticklers. If your first post is like this, then you better get regular at and give us another source of stress buster.

Keep writing.

-AV

Vinumon S said...

Thanks everyone :)

@Abhinav, I am really flattered, Thanks again :)

Nandu said...

hi VinuMon....
Very nice blog...
Keep writing.

Anonymous said...

you rock

a female fan!
Nice write...

Vinumon S said...

Thank you :)

Unknown said...

A good writer and a passionate photographer who captures through your shutters. All the best!!

SusieQ said...

This is quite kickass. Unexpected but very interesting :-)

Anonymous said...

Good One Chetta.. :)