Whats in a name!

There was a movie saved in the D drive. I wanted to carry it home and watch it in my laptop during the weekend. I did not have an external memory device with me. I thought of borrowing it from my colleague. Thus, I went to him and asked, "Dude, do you have a pen drive?" We call it 'pen drive' or 'flash drive' in Bangalore. My colleague was from Sudan. He gave me a quick glance, and asked, "What do you need?"

I presumed that my friend was totally immersed in his task (of logging out of his computer to call it a day) that he could not actually hear me. "Pen drive", I replied.
"What is a pen drive?" he asked, showing the same emotions of an irritated arts professor, when his 7th class son asked him, "papa, what is the difference between force and torque"!! I tried to explain him, what do I actually need, and why do I need it. He laughed saying, "Oh! Flash..." and instantly handed me his 'USB-memory stick'. While I was copying the movie into the device, my thoughts started rolling. Movie-Bipasha Basu-Item number-D drive-Pen drive...or Flash? Why is it flash and not flash drive? Why is it called flash drive? Why in Bangalore we call it Pen drive? Why is it called a drive? Does it take me to any place? Does it need any petrol? I again was in my crazy Tell me why mode!

Pen drive - the name given to the device probably because, it was small and portable like a pen. Flash drive, again the synonymous name of the same device, which shows the characteristic of it to copy loads of data from a computer memory, in a flash? Maybe. But heck! What’s in a name!

I went to the Feroz Restaurant (in hara- Hayyul wazarat, Riyadh), to have my lunch. I ordered for a meal, and again started thinking. Why the place is called Hayyul wazarat? Why did it become Hara in short? Why not Haat? Or Hawa? These questions again led me to the same question that was lingering in some corner of my mind, amidst likes of bhendi curry, bipasha basu and others, the reason of the name "Flash Drive".

Man names different things in his native tongue, which reflects the characteristics of the particular thing. This will serve a double fold purpose. To remember the thing in an easier manner and also to know what it does just by looking at the name of it. Like, if we consider a company called Geotech, it straight away gives us a thought of a company, basically technical company, which has something to do with Geography. Either, it would mean that the company is every where on the earth (geoid), or it can deal with a Geographic technology system, or so on and so forth.

This conclusion suddenly gave me weird thought. Man, creates/discovers/invents things at ease and names them in such a beautiful manner, which on just knowing the tongue in which that naming has been done, gives us the core or the basic character sketch of the thing or device he invented/discovered/made. Man has been highly successful in giving such sweet meaningful names. (Thinking about meaningful names, my grand mom is a blood pressure patient and the salt she uses was named Lona. Lo-Na. Na- Sodium! Really, ‘to the point and meaningful’ naming convention).

But why do we say, what’s in a name? Why did the first person say what’s in a name? What was actually going through his mind when he said that? Till this instant, we could feel, there’s everything in a name. But, the other side is really THE other side of the story. Man was highly successful in naming things that he made, in a ‘to the point and meaningful’ manner. But same man, when he gives the name to a living thing that he assisted in making, goes completely off the hook!

Man names his child after great personalities, gods, good feelings, nice emotions and basically the good side of the world. What he expects while he names his child is that his child would grow to be similar to that name. My parents named me Pavan. According to Indian languages Pavan is Air. Maybe my parents wanted me to be as swift as air. And I broke my knee once, my collar bone once, and I tore my knee ligaments, due to which, forget as swift as Indian air, I don’t think I can be as swift as vacuum if it were a moving thing. Yea! I proved my name in my swiftness in breaking my body bones and falling prey to innumerable accidents!

Why is the same man, who is so logical in naming things, is a total failure in naming living things? His failure isn’t his mistake. Who knows what one is bound to grow up into? In that case, then why does one "pre decide" that "...My son should be as good as M.K.Gandhi. Let me name him Mohandas." It might not be his mistake for his child's development in a direction against what a name suggests. But is it his mistake to judge a thing before he sees its full potential? Or is it a positive thought/wish?

Well, this third party problem will never have any logical solution, unless one follows Abhishek Bachhan in his Idea ad, 981234587ji..................