What's in a Name

I have always wondered what lies in a name; what are people thinking when naming something or somebody is something that eludes me. There are no naming conventions followed generally as in Chemistry or Computer programming; unless you are an Ekta Kapoor or Karan Johar. While, the Indians mostly follow the ritual in which a priest suggests them the name or the first alphabet for the child; the vast majority of the world just takes cues from their own family tree. You can observe these things in the names of your uncles & dad’s friends having names Manoj, Mukesh, Sunil and likes as are the aftereffects of an “Icon”. However, societies & trends are changing with the times. Its just not film makers, singers or composers that turn to numerologist for help; now “the ordinary man” wants a “prosperous name” with all the spellings in right place to secure his child’s future. Now people shy away from being indifferent, they want “The thing” to stand out as for “Magik” from Rock On.

I don’t really care though of what people do with their money, but I guess a name with gloss added to it might persuade a second look. Anyhow, there is another dimension to a name “The brand value” that throws a great deal of light on the product’s reliability & quality. Brands like Dettol, Surf, Colgate & Hajmola have stood the test of time & have reinvented themselves to cater to its target audience.

Perhaps what is most amusing about names is the way people confuse them & make fun out of them. I guess the most embarrassing moments are born out of these when your friends tease you with your pet names in front of that “Someone special”. So, Sukhdev is called Sukhi (though he might be a strong guy) & Adiya becomes Addie, as it is considered cool to anglicize things. By the way, COERians are definitely the most creative people in this aspect; I mean, “Rambo Keeda”& “PMC” are definitely good creative works.

In a similar way, “KNOL” the e-mag represents a unit of knowledge, similar to the way the neutrons, that have been divided into smaller units. Knowledge can be expressed in a sentence as, “If you KNOW alL, you will have an EDGE”, something that you might have heard since your childhood and this “know all” is formed of different units that we call “KNOLs”.

So, each “KNOL” does add to “Knowledge” & every “KNOL” how small it might be is like a drop in an ocean & thereby important. In my opinion therefore it all comes down to what you do & how you do it. What matters is the contribution, as echoed by India Gate, Jallianwala Bagh Memorial & Madras War Cemetery.

So, I would like everybody to come up with something or the other to make this “KNOL” a pleasure of a treasure called “Knowledge”. I conclude by saying what some people voice “Knowledge is obsolete if not applied” but said Holmes “Knowledge never goes in vain, it comes useful sometime or the other”.

Thursday it is. Happy to be blogging again. I wanted to do so for such a long time, that now i curse myself for my laziness. But i know that i'll have to shed this layer of restlessness, as it has been long since i did something that made me really happy or made me swell with pride at my creation. I do recall doing such things during my engineering days; but now is the time to move out of this slumber. Firstly i wish to shed some light on NH 58; the thing i think a lot about but care the least. I had started some work on NH 58 during august & september last year and was hopeful of having completed a major chunk by now. But as luck would have it, i lost my MP3 player containing the audio recordings that i made in Chennai while on my way to Chennai from Delhi. It was not the loss of the recordings that bothered me more, it was the inability to listen to my previous recordings & get inspired to think and record more for the book. Then as time went by, i became dis concerned with it as there were graver issues at hand. Then came the day when i bid farewell to Chennai & my small abode which i loved a lot.

I had been living alone for almost 8 months in a small room away from the regular humdrum experienced in a big city like Chennai. This was the first time that i was living alone totally on myself; which was a great opportunity for me to focus on important issues of my life & learn to enjoy myself more. But, i wasted this chance as i meandered to the easier option of acting overtly lazy. Thus, i didn't do as well as thought i would have in terms of honing my physical & mental abilities.

Coming back to NH 58, i came to Bangalore hoping to find some inspiration in this new city from its urban centric life & also from my departure from a solitude filled lonely life. But, as luck would have it; i got entangled in more worthy things. Though i could always find some time between the more discrete matters at hand; i always played the neglect game telling myself that i'll be better when i'll be done with all other things. I guess i am pretty good at playing this game as i wrote down a few points on NH 58 only a few days back. Whatever, i did was not good & moreover the way i delayed myself from writing on NH 58 was even worse. Now i wish to make peace with myself; to make peace between the agitated, harassed and impatient me & the lazy, shy and reclusive me. I know this war should seem heavily lop-sided to the people who know about NH 58; but let me tell you this is the turmoil that i have to go through quite frequently. Now, i wish to learn from my mistakes & wish to do the thing that i have wanted to do for almost 5 years now. Though, through the passage of time things & views have changed a lot; i now face the task of digging through my pile of memories the things that can be made to work for NH 58.

First Post

Monday it is; happy to be online again. Though the work & my pending leaves aren't making my mood any good, i am content with the way life is going. This Sunday i finished one more audio clip of NH 58; & the work is coming out as satisfactory. I just wish i could get help from the people concerned, but there are various factors that are stopping me. On the contrary if i ask for too much help; i run the risk of being influenced & most of all it raises the expectation levels which i fear the most. Meanwhile US Open is going on and i am hoping that Nadal makes it to the Semi-finals.