Name Me Right

When I was born, a girl child,
The grand-elders of the family agreed upon for me,
A name as per the astrological charts confirmed.
‘Twas a wonderful name, no doubt,
A name that held serene beauty,
But what my mother wanted for her first-born
was something beyond the aesthetics.

All through her trimesters, she had only prayed
that her daughter (yes, she knew it would be me)
be blessed with knowledge and wisdom,
Not just of the intellect but even beyond.

My mother, however, being nothing but
that breed of a daughter-in-law
conditioned to mute nodding whenever
the grand-elders pronounced an edict,
The prayer was a silent wish she carried
into the labour room —
My mother, whose name spelt ‘victorious’.

So, when the unheard voice managed in a whisper
To utter the wishful name,
The grand-elders deemed it sacrilege.

“Remember, it’s a girl you have birthed,
Society expects a girl to be beautiful, not wise.”
“Remember, it’s a girl you have birthed,
who must, one day, cross our threshold to move
into her husband’s home.
A girl with brains is a girl undone.”

“Remember,” said a stern-eyed matriarch,
“Men take beauty; men don’t take intellect.”

“Remember what you are now.
For the name your parents gave you,
What are you but a meekling here!”

Thus, the cry of the meekling ignored,
An absolutistic statement was made —
“Beauty, the baby’s name will be,
Beauty, she will grow up to be,
And beauty, her tool, a husband for her to find.”

What brought about the moment of catharsis
Neither of my parents can recall,
But just as the priest was about to declare
the commanded name,
My father, a shadow till then, spoke out loud and clear.

“She’s my daughter and I shall name her what I will.
I refuse to comply
With your unreasonable decree.”

People say it was my father’s audacity
To make his voice heard in a tone more solid than the elders’
that gave me my name.
But I believe ‘twas Love —
The love my father had for my mother
That triggered his voice.
And, over the hollering of generations of bias
Came victorious, a mother’s silent love
That dared to dream for her daughter
Not only a simple name but also a destiny
That went beyond
The acceptable.






















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