An Erratum – The First Mistake in my Life

   

    What’s there in a name? Shakespeare wrote. Really?? Mr Shakespeare, you don’t know how many kids lost marks for spelling your name wrong as ‘Shakespere’ or ‘Shakesphere’? I am one among them.

So here goes the story of how a spelling changed my life.

Place: Delhi, the Capital city if India. It was going to be the most important day of my life; I was going to join a school for the first time. But apart from gaining an education that day my life was going to change my life upside down, I never knew. As usual, holding to my dad’s fingers, I was trotting towards the school, trying to catch up with his pace. As an army man, he believed every child was born perfect, so he was marching past fast expecting me the same.  

                Army kids were privileged to get admission in the central government-owned Kendriya Vidyalayas. So, walked into the Principal’s room and had a small discussion. My dad filled out the form and gave it to the Principal. He was checking out the form and he made few changes in it. And proudly announced as if he found some mistake, telling my dad he misspelt my spelling “I” instead of “e”. My dad did not understand at first, so the Principal showed him the correction he made on the application form. He Christianized me as “Hema” in that form. Then my dad told him no it was “Hima” as my dad had spelled it. But the proud Principal told that his daughter was Hema and he asked my dad is he not a fan of the famous Bollywood heroine and the dream girl of every Indian male then, Hema Malini? My dad who always had a chill pill attitude told him then let it be so. Thus, from Hima, I became Hema that day. Identity crisis in my life started that day. From a unique name, I degraded to a common name that day.

                So, the story behind naming me as Hima goes like this. As the custom goes, in my family it is the eldest Ammavan (uncle) who has the right to name the kids. It happens that my Ammavan had some craziness towards the letter H. All the names of kids in my tharavad began with H. Second in line it was my turn to be named. I was born in the beautiful Himalayas, on a snowfall November. Hence it was decided I will be Hima, yes indeed I was a kid as soft as snow.

                And here the Principal at KV No.1 Delhi changed me from snow to gold. Yes, Hema means gold in Sanskrit. My family and close friends call me by the name Hima. My documents, certificates and passport go by the name Hema. By the way, my husband too has a unique name, Idhayan. And people spell it wrong all the time. Same with my daughter Dia. In India, everyone adds one ‘y’ to her name.

“Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language” And yes, now I do remember what the Bard of Avon said, “what’s there in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”