What’s in a name?

Not until very recently, learning of a particular news almost shook my ground.

I was sitting idly next to my dad. We had a momentary awkward pause amidst a rather jolly topic. Then we shifted gear towards his childhood stories and from there my dad got amped up and started narrating animatedly about stuff that I already new before hitting me with a baffling news.

Now, my dad has a name that is pretty simple. Only five letters long and extremely easy to pronounce. Yet people, who for the first time hear it and even long known acquaintances for that matter invariably mishear/mispronounce/ misspell his name.

This happens to me on occasions where I have to give details about my father.

That is why my father always gets the form from the attendant and fills it out himself.

While we were talking about his childhood recently, he said that the name which is his now isn’t his actual name. He was given a different name at his birth. He had an elder brother who was just a few years older than him. His brother, however so young had too many good qualities. He was a well mannered boy who was diligent in all of his duties. What appalled many people was that he was too good at such a young age. He always helped others and was too kind. He succumbed to an illness and unfortunately passed away at boyhood. My grandparents were devastated. My father recalls walking along the funeral procession as a tiny kid. He stumbled on the way and fell over his chin, splitting it badly and still has a wide scar, which he showed me. My grandparents had a very tough time coming to terms that they’re dear son was gone. To cope with their loss, they started calling my father by his brother’s name and it eventually became his name.

In all my years of existence, I didn’t know my father had an immediate brother, I didn’t know he had a scar in his chin and didn’t know his name is actually isn’t his name.

The only people who knew his name aren’t here anymore.

My father’s oldest brother is too old to remember anything and my father was too young at that time he didn’t know what a name was.

Now I would never know what his original name was and I have to live with that void forever.

On an international journal, somewhere on the internet is my study published with my name along with my father’s name.

Somehow, the good boy has been immortalised.