Names galore

There is a tradition of giving a nick name (henceforth, NN) to each and every student in my institute. Giving NNs is not an uncommon event. Whenever people work in groups, NNs spring up. The reasons for these may vary from convenience to liking to disliking. I have been given NNs in my various groups (and perhaps by others, in which case the NNs have remained unknown) before but this time it was more of a universal thing.

Many of the nick names given are just unmentionable, especially to people who do not know of this culture. We had an incident in one of our classes, when a Prof asked a student to tell his dorm name. The student avoided mentioning the same so that he is not embarrassed in front of the Prof. The entire class was in splits. However, to his dismay, the Prof got the name known from some other source and recited it in the next class.

The NNs tend to be of varying nature. Some are so catchy that people actually forget what the real names of the NN holders are. So, after a while, if a person with such a name is referenced by his original name, people tend to have a reaction (genuine!) of not knowing that person. Some other NNs are not so catchy and tend to wither off or not pick up at all. NNs of smaller length or those which are easy to speak may not guarantee their widespread use. In the end, though there may be speculations about different NNs getting different levels of popularity, the actuals are generally very different from what is forecasted.

As for my NN, it is not one which cannot be mentioned to people. In fact, I told my parents about it. They were quite surprised at such a tradition (and such a NN for me). However, I like my NN and in fact have started liking being called by it (at least in my institute campus). Actually, if you search this blog carefully, you will find a mention of it somewhere. (Hint: the mention was not by me).

A compliment which I received regarding my NN goes as “…it reminds me u know like in comics and cartoons they have a bulb that lights up on top of the head of the genius who gets brilliant eureka types ideas...”. (Disclaimer: The person was praising the NN and not me). Though the NN becomes quite revealing from this, it can take a while for people to guess.

I generally call only those people by their NN whose NN I like.