entry: what's in a name

This is no longer a toddler recounting her initial steps! its crazy the way the world moves so fast these days,esp, in the virtual world where you can be an infant one day and the next day you wake up as an adult...what prompts me to write 2nite is my encounter with a friend of a friend today. we both gave hesitant smiles as we go through quick mental time travel, each trying to locate where we had met. My head was apparently slower to register as she beamed and called out "JASMINE!!! how are you?". I was glad she saved me the embarrassment of having to ask for her name but I wasnt excited about the new name given to me either. I returned a friendly smile with a secretly ungrateful "hi" and quickly exited, not becos i was swollen-headed but becos i didnt want the situation to turn even more awkward with me having to conceive a new name for her as well, as the name never came to me. As I walked away, I silently fumed "AAAArrrgh! The burden of names!"...The impossible pronunciation and intonation of our Mizo names have let many people to adopt names in the language that is dominating the world today. It can, though unlikely, be taken as a our attempt at subversion of the colonized world; just as writers like Raja Rao, Rushdie, etc. have “Chutneyfied” the English language, can our acts represent our struggle to conquer the west by pirating their names? Also,there's a claim that the adoption of Western names is a "colonial hangover" and people's attempt to westernize themselves. The fact that there are people who adopt English names to appear sophisticated is a certainty but there's also a flip side. I don’t think we can really claim that this is the reason for all. For instance, my older brother was named Lenny because my parents, still romantic in the early stage of their marriage, read together a very inspiring novel about a young boy named Lenny while my mom was carrying my brother and they decided to name him after this boy. So, here we have a case where the naming is done purely on the basis of an inspiring story. Even if the boy’s name had been a Mizo one, I don’t doubt for an instant that my parents would still name my brother after him. Likewise, he was also named Vanlalmuana by my grandmother who was inspired by her Christian faith. So, naming depends on inspirations, experiences, influences, etc. etc. At the same time, I support the claim that there is a ridiculous zeal for English names among the Mizos. It’s absurd to see a very traditional, custom-bound, Mizo-faced Mizo from a remote, typical, Mizo village bearing an English name. If we force ourselves to view this from a different angle, then this can be taken as proof that communication has become easier and with development and progress, even the most far-flung parts of the state have tasted the west. But I cannot see the influence except in terms of appearance, out and not in. All we seem to care about is to bear an English name and dress like them and voila! you’re a westerner, as if one’s identity can be changed by clothes and names. Identity is a marker of difference and I think culture, language, race and religion are the basic components of identity. Its my identity as a Mizo that makes me distinct! With the advent of globalization, people are taking renewed interest in strengthening their identities, eager to participate in the multi-cultured global village and bringing with them their own cultures and sharing them with the rest. We cannot escape the globalizing forces which are starting to enter our own society, as seen in the development of mass media and communication, and as such, we need to be secure in our own identity in order to face and utilize these forces. What we have may not even be identity crisis but only progress crisis! We seem to believe that by adopting western names and fashion, we can share the pedestal that the west has placed itself upon, big mistake! Wouldn’t it be weird if an American in the US decides to wear only Mizo puan and have a Mizo name albeit he(a “he” seems even more hilarious to imagine than a “she”) still professes his “American-ness”? Progress comes only when there’s a stable self and the self exhibits interest in knowledge of one's own culture. It is time we realize that by denying our own culture and assuming others’, we have reverted to being “the colonized”, Do we really want to be the “other” just when our beloved(???) India is quickly becoming one of the world’s most powerful countries and we can enjoy its benefits? I, too, am among the unfortunates bearing the burden of an anglicized name and I had often made my parents upset by pointing out how much I hate my name though they were not the culprits. To this day, I have suffered humiliation, both from my identity-conscious generation for having a mannish, anglicized name and from the older generations who almost always have difficulty pronouncing my name. I am fated to smile when people say “Hey, you have the same name as Jamie Aditya, the VJ, Ya know, the "guy" from MTV” or “The Ushers for this month’s church services are James/Jimmy/Ja(Mizo lett "a")my/Jasmine/Jemmie/Zeemie/ Zamie/Jem,etc.”. There’s one, tiny, consolation though and that's, my name originated from Hebrew or so Wikipedia claims and though, it definitely spells a western fervor, it at least originated in the east even though it means “supplanter”.