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”.