And Tatha survives....

What’s Your Name? Will this person be able to pronounce my name? or How do I pronounce my name so that he understands?. These questions usually sends shivers down my spine and the reason for this is simple. My name is TATHAGATA and if you took some time to pronounce it, I don’t blame you.

Shakespeare was so wrong when he quoted the lines ‘ What’s in a Name’ in his masterpiece play ‘Romeo and Juliet’. I can tell from my personal experience that a lot depends on a name. I was born on ‘Budh Purnima’ , so my parents named me after the enlightened one, not Gautam or Siddharth but Tathagata. I guess a lot of thought process goes into naming a child in a Bong family just like choosing the fish delicacy for the day. Another famous Bong, the so called management guru, Arindam Chaudhuri also named his son, Che Kabir. Che after the revolutionary, Che Guevara and Kabir after Sant Kabir, he hopes his son will bring revolution in a peaceful way. A commendable thought I must say. For the child, though the idea or the thought behind his name makes no sense and he is as far from it as currently I m from moksha, nirvana or enlightenment. As a result the poor name faces the brunt and has to undergo a lot of torture in many forms.

My first exposure to public life started with my schooling. The Head mistress of the primary school ‘Step By Step’ typed my name in the register as TATAGOTA. Of course I have no memory of this particular balatkar of my name but my sister uses this as a tool to admonish me whenever I try to make a mockery of her name. It is as weird as mine or I may say it was, since she changed her name officially. A long name as mine also comes with its share of short forms. My school buddies came up with TUTS. Luckily now I must say it was ‘U’ and not ‘I’. The other nick name Tatha though, has stuck with me faithfully through thick and thin and that helped me pass through most of school and college days without much fuss until Chennai occurred to me.

The most difficult time for me came while I was in Chennai for a year or so for my first job. People from the southernmost state of India usually have the habit of adding an ‘H’ after a ‘T’. So Sangeeta becomes Sangeetha, Parvati becomes Parvathy and Tathagata becomes Thathagatha. And to make it worst they usually pronounce ‘H’ something like HACH, I can’t write and explain how my name was finally pronounced. I also avoided introducing myself as Tatha, as in Tamil, Tatha means an old man or grandfather something like that, and being in my early twenties I wouldn’t like to be called old. The final nail on my coffin was when a Pan Card agent goofed up and the name on my PAN CARD came as TATHALATA. That was it and I made my way to Mumbai and for a brief time in the States. My stay there too had its share of memories w.r.t my name. A particular client used to address me as TATA and often enquired whether I was somehow related to the people with the famous last name. Being in the service industry , clients are usually Mai Baaps so I dared not to rebuke him. And a headache was to spell my name to a customer representative over phone like T for ‘Texas’ A for ‘Arizona’ T….which used to go on and on. But the best part during my stay there was my machine user id, which was the first letter of the first name and the entire last name, so my user id was TROY. This little part of my life, this small part is called HAPPYNESS. So I proudly Brad Pitt like, introduced myself as TROY while sipping a cup of coffee at Star Bucks.

I also make conscious efforts in pronouncing my name based on whom I am addressing. If the person is a bong, I usually pronounce it as TOTHAGOTO, they usually get it first time. Or if he is from any of the hindi speaking states, the name becomes TATHAGAT. One question I always expect from the other side and that is WHAT? And when the unexpected occurs, like a compliment , i end up liking the person and hold him in high esteem. Just the other day someone comes to me and tells me he saw my name in the mailing list and he googled out the meaning. That felt good, my weathered soul told me here is an educated man.

But at the end of the day, trying to look at the positive side, my name also comes with its share of advantages. Once a person is able to pronounce it, he usually never forgets me. I thank my parents that my name isn't ChironjeeLal or ChampakLal. And i love the short form of my name Tatha which is as faithful as ever and it has survived.