What's in a nick...

“Are you happy?”, he asked. No no don’t take it as a question posed by some Art-of-Living enthusiast enquiring someone about his personal or emotional or (far worse) psychological well being. Its just one sardar( a sikh male) asking another sardar whether he is Happy or not. And by the way, I can guarantee you 99% that the sardar asking this question is called Prince.


So, whats the point I am trying to raise here. Here I am trying to look into a bit of sociology of nicknames. You know for sure that if in a crowd there is only one sardar and someone is yelling prince or Happy at the top of his voice, then he is definitely calling that sikh boy only. Why do sikh guys go for these specific nicknames. Why do most of hindu guys wud have pappu, raju, as their nicknames. Though in recent times, number of pappus, rajus have gone down giving way to lot more sids and sandys.


I am short of my research expertise here J, but I think every state of India must be having its own favourite nicknames. Nicknames, in my view, are class , region, and status specific not to mention religion and caste. You wont find pappu , raju in high-middle class. You will find mannu, etc there. Sids , vickys and sandys(though every sandeep is now sandy , these days) will be mostly found in high middle class.


Ok, i am no more interested in this topic..so leaving it midway…(why does this happen with me only, I start off great and then tapers down immediately…will improve upon that..but in the end, its my blog..and its my wish how much I wanna write :)..somewhat autocratic…lol)..but this blog entry is still incomplete


But here are my nicknames earned over these many years of my life - Gandhi, lala, buddy, modi, naren(should I include Nare too !!!), gogi, bacha and nari….. :)
Please tell your nicknames too while posting any comment.THNX