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Linking Young Minds Together
     Volume 2 Issue 35 | September 09 , 2007|


  
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Feature

Nicknames and what they do to you

Fahima Bintee Jamal

My dad is a huge fan of birds. When he was a youngster he used to have his own small poultry farm where he kept his own chickens and hens. According to common belief within my family, it is due to his love for birds that he nicknamed me 'Munia'. That's well and good, it's always heart warming to have this story repeated over and over again in various family gatherings - but there's, as there always seems to be in my life, a slight problem.

The fact that I have two separate names didn't really make any sense to me when I was a kid, and so I made up my own solution to the problem (brilliant, ain't I?). Since my 'proper' name is Fahima Bintee Jamal, and my nickname is Munia, I made up a nice concoction of my own - Munia Jamal. My theory behind this was simple - it contained the name most people knew me by as well as my family name. I have to admit though there was a more realistic reason behind this (at least I thought so anyway) and that was that all my fellow classmates seemed to have only two names.

One of the interesting things about my name (Munia), was that it was always unique in the British and American standard schools abroad, no one could definitely say whether I was Hindu, Muslim or Christian! Then of course there was the downside, most of my classmates would repeatedly inquire: "You are named after a BIRD????' (emphasis on the 'bird'). If only they'd ever met my maternal uncles. One of them is called 'Golap' (Bangla for 'rose', yes, the one that's a flower), while another distant uncle is called 'Angur' (Bangla for 'grape'-the fruit.). Sometimes I can't help wondering whether their parents gave them such names out of love, or malice. I mean, why name a guy after a flower, or worse, a fruit???

Anyways, my dilemma with my two names continued throughout most of my childhood. At one point I decided to opt for the use of one specific name only in school: Fahima. At first it felt strange, being called by a name that was my own, but which wasn't really used in everyday life, it was always present in all my official documents, but other than that, it wasn't really a part of my daily life. Besides, it has a very formal ring to it, like I am some kind of grown up person or something (come to think of
it -maybe I am). Well any way, after a while, Fahima became one of my regular companions. However, once again, there was another small problem, this one occurred at home. Every time one of my friends or classmates would call me, they'd obviously ask for Fahima, and then one of my parents would ask in an unsure tone 'You mean Munia??' Then of course the reply on the other end of the line would be, 'Oh no, uncle/aunty, I am looking for Fahima, maybe I dialed the wrong number.'
See what two names can do to you??? Even my own parents got confused! But such incidents happened initially. Now they opt for another method, when
someone asks for Fahima on the phone, whichever of my parents happens to pick up the phone says, 'Sure, just hold on, Munia is coming.' This in turn ends up confusing my poor friends, some of them even slowly cut the line, thinking that they've once again dialed the wrong number.

No matter how annoying your name can be, it IS your name, besides, most of our parents spent quite a lot of time searching (and bothering people) for a good name for their children. One more important thing is, as weird as they may sound, our names actually have very nice meanings (well, most of them anyway). Fahima means 'intelligent'. OK, so maybe that is one of those inappropriate names that parents give their children hoping that it might take effect on the character. And maybe I am one of those cases where such a theory as been clearly proved wrong.

(Student of English Department, NSU)

 

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