Wednesday, June 8, 2011

What's in a Name!

Today I'm in a mood to just write and not review.. The last couple of weeks have been hectic with big bosses visiting from the US, guests at home and so on. I have been away from the blogger for a really long time (not that many actually miss it :))! And then I sat with my laptop, staring at my blog screen, desperate to write but lazy to edit pictures or do a product analysis. Then I thought of writing about some interesting experiences.

So what's in name? I guess quite a lot. When you haven't really met a person and you just know the name, you automatically tend to create an image in your mind. Like a 'Shalini' would be homely, and a 'Jia' would be hot! Imagine someone with a name 'Raka'..Absolutely no offence intended here to anyone who actually has that name but you would probably expect a tall, well-built man (remember chacha chaudhary comics), and then if you discover it's a woman, you'll get the shock of your life!

And when someone knows your name and still screws it up, it's rather infuriating -  like a horribly wrong pronunciation or a spelling error. Imagine reading 'Obama Killed' in stead of 'Osama Killed', 'Nick Carter' called 'Nick Farter' (Just one letter differences). Also, there was this famous racing horse called 'Hoof Hearted', and you can imagine what the name sounded like while the horse approached the finishing line and the commentators screamed his name with real excitement and speed!

Now let's talk about my own experiences. By now most of you would know, I am Debleena (The 'D' is pronounces as 'The'). Do you think the name is that tough! I don't, but many do. While I was in school, I remember everytime a new teacher would come, I would have to repeat my name and sometimes even the spelling numerous times. Nevertheless the time I was in Kolkata/ Bihar, life was better. They would all be able to  more or less pronounce it correctly, with minor edits like 'Debolina' or 'Devleena'.

But somehow Delhites found it very tough. I moved to my first PG, and they said it was too complicated and they would call me 'Leena'. I had to say okay to it although at times I felt it was not me! Again at the restaurants when I put in my name for a reservation, they would write all kinds of spellings like, Delena, Beleena, Reena, Meena and so on!

Then came office..it actually wasn't that bad except that some of my American friends would pronounce the 'D' as 'D' and not 'The'. But it was perfectly fine. Some would sometime refer to me as 'Dableena'. And then came a funny moment, a guy who had newly joined the team, came and called me 'Debbie'.. It was a bit shocking to start with (I just got another new name and that too from a person who just joined) but the name somewhat picked up. He later claimed that someone had told him my name was actually Debbie!!

 But the incident that beats all is this..I had ordered pizza over phone for my entire team. The guy probably like my voice and he sent a small gift along with the pizza. The gift was a digital clock that stopped working after 2 days. But it had come with a note saying 'For Babelina'. It was actually hilarious!! The whole team couldn't stop laughing. Thank god my real name is not Babelina!

That was about me. Tell me about your funny/ disastrous experiences with your names.

10 comments:

Dr Shivani Sud Thakur said...

I do miss it!!:)

Hungover on Fashion said...

someone misses my posts :) thanks Shivani for your support!!! I will be back in full force!

PeachesandBlush said...

Haha, i liked babelina the best too!!!! You havent posted in one thousand year!

Hungover on Fashion said...

yeah, it indeed feels like a thousand years..esp for a proper beauty/ fashion related post!! have been jumping around with monkeys and weird names!

Unknown said...

wow..here in states people mess up my name all the time..i am used to it now.

cactusandcucumber.blogspot.com

Swati said...

hahaha....
thx god it had never happened with with me in pronunciation but being in south India, they write it Swathi instead of swati and i hate it. But its not just my name. They replace 't' with 'th' in all the names...

Hungover on Fashion said...

@Asta: What's your real name btw???

@Swa'th'i: Yeah, the 't' and 'th' is the most harmless mistake there!

Poohkie said...

Babeline!! That's hilarious! People always mis-hear my name as well & it used to annoy me no end during my childhood. But for some reason I'm fine with it these days.

And I agree with Swati. In south India, if your name has a 'd' or a 't' in it, people automatically add an 'h' after it. Or else they pronounce the name with a hard 'd' or 't'. It's somewhat silly, but really widespread.

indian beauty central said...

Ha ha sounds very babelicious 'Babelina'LOL ;D

EVE-O-LUTION said...

I miss the posts too :( and it doesnt have to be about products all the time :D
ppl kill my name all the time too :(