That was a good point made by Juliet(and hence by Shakespeare). But, that was said, perhaps, in the late 16th century. If you ask someone today, "What's in a name?", the reply you'll get will be, "Apparently everything!". Haven't you heard of how people add an extra A or delete an O just to get showers of "money, prosperity" and if the letters permit, some amount of genuine happiness too!
My name's Manya. You might have noticed that right on top, a small little addition to "lifeisbeautiful". When I started writing on this blog, I was really confused about the title. I was merely 13 years old with half as much humour as I have at the ripe age of 16. I'm not exactly Robin Williams now either. But, I'm definitely better than my 13 year old version. So, I zeroed in on the name "Life is Beautiful" because it is, and because it happens to be one of my favourite movies (also known by the Italian name, La vita รจ bella, starring Roberto Benigni).
Well, coming back to where I started, my name's Manya. It is an unusual name, I know. Never heard it before? Well, I haven't heard of anyone else having the same name either.
In India, there is one tradition that every family follows, irrespective of the state they live in or the religion they follow(United we stand, for sure!). You'll always find some distant relative of yours(could be the "London wali Aunty" or "Patna wale NRI Uncle") or sometimes even people with almost the same genetic constitution(read:Parents or grandparents) who would go on and on AND on about how good "those days" were! Well, if you happen to belong to a family where you haven't come across such fine specimens or if you don't belong to India, you might be curious to know, what exactly does "those days" mean. Well, "those days" basically signifies those days when chocolates were available in only 25 paise(I wonder how they tasted), when people went uninvited to everyone's houses, when the only channel that existed was Doordarshan and when the Internet was a foreign word. I know you're trying to figure out what's exactly so good about it. Give up, I did this a long time back.
When I was 5, I needed my dad/mum's help to have any access to the Internet. It was a once-in-week-thing. My dad would sign in, enter the password(which my little black eyes couldn't catch) and a circle would appear near the cursor signifying that soon I'll be able to go and play all sorts of games(stupid games) on disney.com! I can picture myself telling my little cousins about "those days" a few years from now. So, those were my days. Today, my six year old, darling cousin, sends me screenshots of her creativity in providing a manicure to a barbie in an internet game!
So, I did use the Internet, once in a while, to surf sites which provided some interactive and "very-educational" games. But, I also used it for one other very special cause. Yahoo used to be subjected to one question every time I surfed on the net, which is, "Meaning of the name Manya". When that didn't give me satisfactory results, I tried other words like, "Meaning of Manya hindu name", "Manya, Indian name", "Manya, freaking girl name, now give me a meaning!!!!". It never worked. I always got bizarre answers. Even the sites were not sure what it meant. They just kept telling that it isn't a very popular name. Well, thank you very much.
When the Internet didn't provide me with answers, I troubled mom for them. My parents say that they named me Manya because that was the first name they thought of when they decided to give me a name that started with M(that's how my father's name begins) and ended with A(as that's how my mum's name begins). Although, I strongly suspect that she(mum) came up with this little theory to curtail me from pestering her day and night. Little genius, she is.
I gave up after a few years. One fine day, while I was sitting with my iPad and searching for Bart Baker Parodies (no longer the five-year-old-disney-surfing-child, am I?), I suddenly decided to search for the meaning of my name. I used Google this time! Several results came up and I clicked on one of them. And there it was, BOLD and CLEAR: The Name Manya means....... Bitter (Russian).
Goddamn you! Who asked for a Russian meaning? I searched again, "Meaning Manya INDIAN, HINDU, SANSKRIT, DEVANAGARI, BHARAT, HINDUSTAN!!" and I finally got what I was looking for. Manya means someone who's worthy of honour and appreciation! Tadaaaa!
Perfect.
Well, things aren't exactly better now. Mr. John Abraham did a movie called Shootout at Wadala, and the name of his character (a Mumbai gangster) was, wait-for-it, Manya Surve. Can you believe my luck! As if my name wasn't already tampered a lot in West Bengal that an A-list "male" actor ends up with my "female" name in a well-publicised movie featuring a track on that name(bonus, yay!)!
Poor me! But, I'm glad that atleast I can proudly tell the meaning of my name to those who enquire. If you happen to be a person with the same name, do write in the comments. Please make sure you don't mention that if you happen to be a boy, thanks (just kidding)!
Oh, and here's a quote: Your name is your going-away gift. Make them remember it. Make them shout it in the streets.
(Obviously, it shouldn't be followed by "Hands up, you're surrounded by FBI agents!")
