Readers’ Voice: When it came to names, the bard was apparently wrong!

26 April 2008

When William Shakespeare challenged, ‘What is in a name?’ and drew out an indisputable analogy of ‘rose by any name would smell just the same,’ little did he realize that a divine madman, Lam Drukpa Kuenley of the East, would preach otherwise?
The name, to the Lam, was so crucial that it determined who was to be blessed or which place was to be graced. For instance, the Lam refused to cross the land of ‘Three Bjees’ (Rukub Bjee, Chendip Bjee and Tangsib Bjee) proclaiming it to be inauspicious. Hence the presumption that the Lam admired the west and abhorred the east of Bhutan is by no means true, although it is also by no means an accident that Lam Drukpa Kuenley never crossed Pelela. To a certain degree, even Shakespeare contradicted himself by attributing ‘frailty’ only to women although there certainly are men who are equally frail. How unfair to the fairer sex!

In a way, we the ordinary mortals, also dare to make quite a commotion with names although we are nowhere near Lam Drukpa Kuenley’s shadow. When a child is born, parents go to great lengths to get a name for their child from a renowned lama. After all, the name from a lama increases the chances of the child’s survival and brings good luck when the child grows up. The child may have a pet name given by his or her parents but eventually he or she is known to the outside world by the name given to him or her by the lama. As the child grows up, he or she realizes that his or her name is rather dull, even stupid. So, he or she takes the matter in his or her own hands, discarding the sacred name the lama has given. How modern and beautiful it sounds with ‘Quinxang’- (a freshly invented name) instead of the cheap and charmless ‘Kunzang’?

A boy like Kinley (name changed,) for example, goes way beyond the technicalities of the spellings of his name. He thinks he has fallen in love with the fair-complexioned ‘Deechen’ of his class even before he knows the meaning of ‘love.’ He takes pains in remodeling his name ingeniously, adding a suffix, ‘Dee’ to his name and when he has finally done it, clamours for attention by advertising his name on his notebooks, on the cover page of the textbooks, in letters to his heart-throb and of course, that is how he is called by his friends. Eventually, he thinks that is how he should be known to the rest of the world. And that is how his class teacher records his name in the register.

He does not realize that the fun with his name is over.

On a serious note, he is denied admission in the next school as the name on his school leaving certificate reflects ‘Kuinley Dee’ instead of a plain ‘Kinley,’ which is how it is reflected on his ID card. He has to get an official letter from the village gup authenticating that ‘Kuinley Dee’ and ‘Kinley’ are actually one and the same person. But his troubles do not stop here. He must visit the registration office in the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs. After about a month, he gets back the old wine in an old bottle – Kinley. Why did he mess up his name in the first place?

A job seeker attending an interview must make sure that everything is in correct order or else he or she will be dismissed even before the interview. We cannot withdraw our own money from the bank if we misspell our names. When we make purchases from a shop such as buying something very basic like a tube of 100g tooth paste, we make sure that we buy ‘Colgate’ and not ‘Colgete.’ Those of us who fail to notice the nuances of names soon repent as we end up paying prices of the items, which are ‘Made as Norway’ instead of ‘Made in Norway.’ The list is endless. Names mattered since time immemorial.
In fact, there was never a paradigm shift when it came to the importance of names.

Would ‘Helen’ of Troy have drawn a thousand ships if her name was ‘Falen’ or ‘Susan’ or something else? To that matter, would we have terms like ‘Oedipus complex’ or ‘Othello syndrome’ if there weren’t characters whose names were Oedipus and Othello? Legend has it that Gasa Lamai Singay and Changyul Galem shared a lifetime of ‘Platonic love’ – the expression coined after the Greek philosopher, Plato. Some people blow up small matters into ‘Titanic proportions’ and teachers often remind the weaker students to put in ‘Herculean effort’ in their studies. We know that the former has its genesis in the iconic Titanic ship while the latter has its root cleaved to the mythical Greek god, Hercules. Both are only names. When Jawaharlal Nehru declared the partition of India in 1947, M. K. Gandhi proclaimed that the decision was a ‘Himalayan blunder,’ apparently comparing Nehru’s mistake to the size of the Himalayas. When we have a tough choice to make and do not know what to do, we say that we suffer from ‘Hamletian dilemma’- the term derived from the character Hamlet.

Some politicians are known to suffer from ‘Orwellian nightmares’ without realizing the fact that they play a part in perpetuating George Orwell’s name. If we adopt non-violence as the means to fight against injustice, we are known to be followers of the ‘Gandhian philosophy.’ To add to the ever increasing nomenclature of words, we now have ‘Powdyelian thought’ from His Excellency T.S. Powdyel’s “As I am, so is my nation.” Dissect these powerful phrases and we find names.

When we meet a child, the first thing we ask is his or her name. When we visit a new place, the first thing that we want to know is the name of the place. When two strangers meet, the first thing they do is introduce themselves by exchanging their names. When we go to a restaurant, the waiter or waitress ask us to name the food we’d like to have. When we think of the DPT, the first thing that comes to our mind is the name of its President. Some people believe the party won a land-slide victory owing to the name ‘Jigme.’ People have names, cars have names, rockets and submarines have names. Plants and animals have names and so do rivers, oceans, countries and every little thing that exists on earth. Even battles and wars which killed people have names!

If names ceased to exist, identity will meet a speedy demise. If the identities cease to exist, communities will meet their doom. If communities die, nations will no longer exist. And thus the disintegration of the nations will continue till the whole universe fades away. Such surreal phenomenon might be good for some ardent religious practitioners, for it helps them to realise the essence of emptiness, but for average men and women like us, names make all the difference in the world.