{"id":2452,"date":"2020-06-09T02:23:46","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T02:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/?p=2452"},"modified":"2020-06-09T02:23:47","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T02:23:47","slug":"is-your-name-really-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/2020\/06\/09\/is-your-name-really-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Your Name Really You?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

\u201cHi… I am Gayu\u201d She introduced herself to her new found friend Patricia at the Boston University; she recently got admission to for her bachelors in Computer Science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGayu\u2026. That\u2019s a beautiful name\u201d said Patricia. \u201cWhat does it mean? I\u2019ve heard all Indian names have meanings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell er\u2026.It\u2019s actually Gayathri Subramaniam.\u201d Now why would my parents keep a name like that\u2026.Gayathri\u2026.not to mention the difficulty in pronouncing the surname, thought Gayu. I mean did they not realize that she would aspire to go abroad to study and probably have a career there or maybe even a groom from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh Gayathri\u2026.am I pronouncing it right? I think that\u2019s an even more beautiful name\u201d Gayu was suddenly woken up from her thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat? What did you say Patricia?\u201d asked Gayathri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was saying Gayathri is such a beautiful name. Is it not the name of a Goddess in the Indian Mythology? asked Pat, as she was lovingly called by her friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh you think so Pat? Well yes, Gayathri has a lot of meanings\u2026.it\u2019s the name of Goddess Durga, it also means the chant of salvation\u201d Gayu explained with a sudden sense of pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was never going to mention to Pat or anybody her pet name \u201cGuddu\u201d that her parents lovingly called her at home. Why would they want to call me Guddu when I had such a beautiful name, Gayathri pondered, forgetting that she was very close to re-christening herself to Gayu a name she thought was more modern and stylish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo Gayu is your nickname for Gayathri?\u201d inquired Pat with fondness. \u201cWell No\u2026.I thought foreigners would find it difficult to pronounce my name so I was thinking of\u2026\u2026\u201d Gayathri\u2019s voice trailed off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not true\u2026.I mean there is so much richness and meaning in your Indian names. I love your names.\u201d Pat was so re-assuring. \u201cYou know what? I am going to call you Gayathri not Gayu. There is music in your name\u201d said Pat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh thanks Pat\u2026.I feel so much more confident now introducing myself. I was beginning to think so vehemently about my parent\u2019s choice of my name.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut your second name is definitely a tongue twister Gayathri\u2026.\u201d giggled Patricia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo worries, we shall find a Nickname for my dad\u201d chuckled Gayathri. \u201cBesides I am the student here not him\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Names could be ancient, modern, rural or urban. It could be musical, beautiful, meaningful, Christian, Jewish, Arabic, German and so on. The fact is Names don\u2019t define you\u2026.You define your Name.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\u201cHi… I am Gayu\u201d She introduced herself to her new found friend Patricia at the Boston University; she recently got admission to for her bachelors…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1329,"featured_media":2455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,50],"tags":[750,237,572,563],"class_list":["post-2452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-for-a-smile","tag-abcd","tag-chandamama-short-story","tag-english-article","tag-motivational-story"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1329"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2454,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452\/revisions\/2454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}