Sunday, March 11, 2012

108. Nick names

One very innocuous yet effective way to form a connect with someone is by giving him/her a nick-name. Since there's invariably something unusual about them, nick names have an amazing recall power embedded in them. The nicks may be born out of a situation or out of a personality trait or just out of the wicked genius of an idle mind. Some nicks connect so well that the actual name takes a back seat in memory. The person is forever remembered by that nick.

Well, here's some of the nicks I've had in the past. Some mild, some funny and some downright weird. 

Chachi 420
Lets say that this was the first serious long-lasting nick that I was bestowed with. Dates way back to high school. This nick evolved from a very lame initial nick called Abdul. I was called Abdul based on the WWF wrestler Abdullah(coz I was very roly poly like him). Slowly, Abdul gave way to Abdul Chacha. And then along came Kamal Hasan with the Bollywood remake of Mrs.Doubtfire. And I've been called Chachi by my school folks ever since.

Bai babu
The credit for this one goes solely to Pope. Its brutal coz its a gult slang word for a 'boob'. Rhymed with my first name and that's all it took. What made it even worse was Pope's fascination with the word 'bai'. Of the few things that he did like during the 4 years in college, using the word 'bai' in every other sentence ranks right among the top things in the list. And so this name caught on like anything. Its only 'Annayya' who gave it a twist by calling me 'bhai', sort of like 'little brother' to the big brother(Annayya). A little brother who got everything in OC, right from his T-shirts to his toothpaste.

Sad face 
A lady at the workplace gave me this name. She'd say that I always had this perennially sad/knocked-out expression whenever she'd come over to talk about work. It took me some time and convincing to tell her that it was the work that made me sad and not her presence. I feel she never bought it #Facepalm

George Bussss
A classic case of a gaming name gone bad. George Bussss was so unusual a nick that it caught on like wildfire. It had this snake-hiss kinda sound to it. I was doomed the day it was coined.

aK
A gaming name that went well with every1 in the computer lab. aK was second only to '56' and 'CoL.Fr0D' (and 'Pasta' and 'Phoenix' and 'CMToTo' and 'Necksmasher'...but not 'Fakeshadow' :p). I miss CS. Those were fun times.

A.Raja
Got this name at the workplace last year. When expanded, has to be read as 'Anubhavinchu Raja'. Its based on this song from the 70s which urges you to experience life and live it to the fullest. Why I got this name was coz I was pretty much living the dream all day everyday last year.Nice phase it was. Here's the song link - Anubhavinchu Raja

Shaani munji
Translates to 'shit face' or 'dung face'. It so happened that when I was a really small kid, I'd called an uncle with the same name. Mom and dad were red-faced and were all set to gimme the blasting of my life. But the thoughtful uncle took it sportingly and made light weather out of it. However, since then, he started addressing me with the same nick. Small price to pay when compared to getting hammered at home for bad behavior.

Naarad Muni 
During my 2 b-skool years, had this notorious reputation of being the inter and intra-batch gossip library(I shared this reputation with another great 'man'). Had also been tagged as a 'gossip queen' in an fb pic(I think the tag still exists). And who better than 'Naarad Muni' to signify my word-of-mouth marketing prowess. I consider this as an achievement no second to being the class/batch topper :p

Shree Krishna ki Vijay
More of a slogan than a nick name. But this one was brutal coz it tried to link me to a girl in the batch. Wanna know how.Just say it aloud a couple of times. And if you still don't get it, call me and I'll tell you :)

Its been a bumpy yet funny ride until now. Am positive that there are many more colorful nick names yet to be created and added to this impressive list. Fingers crossed.