The Story of My Name

The story behind my name, or names can take upto ten pages of writing. Valsala, that's my name .I never quite liked my name.i always felt that it sounded old and befitted an old kerala nanny. Burt Mom had a friend in college who was called by that name and she was drop dead gorgeous!And Amma named me after that gorgeous buddy.

I was thin and scrawny as a child and not drop dead gorgeous as my namesake , Valsala Thomas, and soon enough,Mom gave up hopes of me being even remotely pretty.  

Years later ,I was made to realise that I had a beautiful name on two occasions.

The first instance was when  Gaurav,my team leader at Standard Chartered Bank, Chennai,  called my name out loudly and kept repeating it, and suddenly he turned to me and opined, ' What a beautiful name"!

I was taken aback!

The other instance was when Mike Dooley, to whom I had sent an online query, appeared on video call:he kept rolling out my name and asked me, Valsala, you have a beautiful name, what does it mean? It was music to my ears and soul...

that made me reflect deeply on my name, and I started liking it better. I loved the meaning since my name typically comes from the sanskrit word valsalyam, meaning affection.

Vats, means child. I loved that too...friends and family call me Vals, lovingly, and I started enjoying it. 

My niece and nephew and their cousins call me Kabi- short and sweet, and to me, it started sounding like I was one among them, mischievous and kiddish.

My daughter calls me Chevi, or Eli, or Ears , or Jacqui.

I myself insist on being called Jacqui,after my favorite author, Jacqui Penn.

As a kid, I have always gorged myself on Russian folklore, and in most of those tales, Masha , a little perky girl, has been the central character. And as a kid, I always loved Masha's antics and loved being called that. 

For some reason, Hari calls me Masthomer, and it sounds like a netflix series I watched recently- The Cook of Castamere. I never realised I had so many names, and with each name, I transform myself.

Does it mean that within us, we all nurture varied persona? Are we all different people at different times?

Long ago, to regale Ninjoo, I created  a fictitious character, "Masha The Elie'. And as the name suggests, Elie is a rat.And this Masha is an erudite scholar who works as a part time librarian in the British Council Library. She loved gnawing her way through tomes of books. A cute little thing with mischievous twinkly eyes that peer out at you from beneath her round spectacles. .So the story unravels.....

My favorite and long time buddy Dr Anil Kumar calls me idli kutti, since i am tiny, according to him.And as our friendship grew, I became I kutti. I called him Dundu boy, which later became D boy. Reflecting back on it,I realise that all of us have a child lurking deep within us, not wanting to grow up or let go of intrigue and mystic, that most often goes misplaced as we become adults.

Talking about intrigue and mystic, is that why i named my blog rendezvouswithval?so that i get to cling on to the mysterious and elusive aspect that's probably me?