Like everybody else I was born with a name..my father had given it to me..Amritarupa Banerjee...In an age where Adnan becomes Ady,Sandeep becomes sandy,Tejaswy becomes Teju or Pooja becomes Poo..I had never ever hoped that ppl would address me by my first name..Amritarupa..it was shortened to Amrita..Well i really like the name Amrita..It sounded simple,nice n I was pretty happy about the fact that now people would spell and pronounce it right..Just Amrita..Well it was not to be..When i was in kolkata..I was addressed with that typical Bangla accent which made it sound more like Amrito..So much for being a bengali..After migrating to Pune (well literally coz i had to have my migaration cert. done) the real woes Begun..Earlier the pronunciation was a problem..here my name itself changed..Amruta Banerjee..So that was my first rechristening (1996)...When i had shifted bag n baggage to hyderabad for my grads..i was rechristened for the second time..Amritha Banerjee..Amrutha Banerjee..this generous dosage of "h"does happen down south..Swati becomes swathi,Jyoti becomes Jyothi,Even Natasha (which incidentally is a russian name) is turned into Nathasha..
Now when i stare at the letter that i have received from Bangalore this morning..I feel sorry..feel sorry for my father who had so lovingly given me a name...it proudly said ..Ms Amrutha Roopa Banerjee..
And they say "Whats in a Name?"..
I say..A hell lot..
1 comment:
Hi Amrita, This is Chirayu from Hyderabad. An interesting post. Names, their spellings and pronunciations change from place to place, in India.
Amruta is a common Maharashtrian name, hence you were called Amruta in Pune, in Hyderabad, people add an 'h' by default, Vidhya, Shwetha, Karthika :-) and now, if you plan to go towards the North, your name will be, Amrit, as in, Amrit Roop Kaur :-) Cheers! Chirayu
Btw, Amrita is a nice name!
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