Nicknames. We Indians have a weird habit of bestowing people around them, with weirder monikers, which mostly, have nothing to do with their real/official/publically-acknowledged names. Some of us have nicknames of our nicknames. That already short nickname is made shorter. Why was that short nickname kept in the first place, if you had to make it even shorter?
My cousin named Vikas, nicknamed Babloo was further nicknamed Bubble. No. Idea. Why.
My friend nicknamed Bulbul, was further nicknamed Bullu. Again, No. Idea. Why.
My father has a cousin named Tomato. Again, No. Idea. Why.
But there’s another category of nicknames that happen because of me. Not accidental. But for the sake of mandatory secret conversations about they-who-must-not-be-named.
In my previous organisation, a colleague was secretly christened Baalushahi, and secretly nicknamed Baalu, by yours truly. An extremely sweet name for an extremely insensitive person. No one could doubt. 😉 Her guy was named Poplu. Just because he looked like one.
Our global marketing head, who was lovingly named Constantin by his parents, could never know he was the Tinu we kept talking about.
Bui. We have been calling Aarushi, bui for about 2 years now. For she has that Bhua-like air. In fact, whenever I call her out, she responds. It’s like she has accepted one of the following conditions or maybe both:
- As per me, she has that bhua-like personality.
- She agrees with my opinion since we are living in a very opinionated world.
Now, it is only fair to call someone Pinku if he is pink-pink all through the day. What if he is your reporting manager? But you are a preacher of truth and absolutely don’t care about being fired.
Random Rings 