Bits & Pieces 5

The Name Game

I have quite often come across children with strange names that look as if taken out of some ancient or pagan language. This trend, I feel, is on a steady rise- more and more parents, esp in the younger generation are naming their kids with all sorts of unique names that seem Greek to most of the people. An acquaintance of mine named her daughter ‘Aneiya’ just because she thought it looked different. Even though she was clueless about the meaning of this word, she was happy as it sounded ‘you know very mod types’, she told me with a grin. I have come across strange sounding names like ‘Czarina’, ‘Imariya’, ‘Kieryna’, ‘Amieria’ and the like. The desire to stand out of the crowd and to look different has led us to focus only on the style factor and ignore the meaning of the name that a child will carry all his/her life. Someone named his son ‘Shankit’ that means ‘always in doubt’ (shanka- doubt) and another one ‘Gorky’ after the famous Russian writer Maxim Gorky (of ‘Mother’ fame). This word ‘Gorky’ literally means ‘bitter’ in Russian and it was a pen name the author had adopted to support the Labor Movement in Russia. To make the matters worse, some celebs have given strange name to their children that are often copied by the public. Such names like ‘Apple’, ‘Majesty’ and many more rather can make you feel lucky and thankful to your parents! My name is a Sanskrit word that means ‘inscribed’. Thank you mummy!

Image-babypicpoint.com

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Data Display!

The worst display can be, I think, the display of knowledge. Nothing can be more annoying than a self-boisterous gadfly hell bent on making you feel like an illiterate fool. Then there are certain people whose personal life is entirely detached from all the spiritual things they keep talking about. They are, in their very hearts, deeply envious, greedy and insecure and are often in a ‘defensive mode’ that is not letting the other person point out any flaw in whatever they state. Always ready to argue over things as petty as a spelling, a name or anything and always pouring out whatever they know at any available instant, they end up making complete fools of themselves and gathering contempt of others. Also, in most of the cases, their ‘knowledge’ that is always on display (often out of context), is merely a collection of facts and figures crammed from newspaper and magazines with little thought and novelty of perspective. Socrates rightly said ‘the biggest knowledge is to know that you know nothing’ How true!

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A Pattern Surfaces

There is a chain that links a few things together and creates a pattern that is rather worrisome and ugly. Trends like-

• Steep rise in road rage incidents and
• In animal cruelty
• In sales of violent video games
• In sale of cheap and erotic literature
• In soft-pornish dating shows on TV
• In high divorce rates and
• In porn search on internet

Taken in a totality, it points out that we are achieving freedom but at the cost of mental stress and loneliness. Animal tendencies are rising and people now openly fight for paltry properties and gold, openly abuse teachers and elders and display their desperate urges as if flaunting a medal. This entire scenario cries out that we need to go back to our roots, spirituality and nature to balance technology with socialization and brotherhood. I think everything that goes up and reaches its peak is often destroyed of its own excess.

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