Obsessive Compulsive Disorder-2

The other OCD the Husband has , is his obsession with names beginning with "D" for our to-be child.
After we were married and some of our friends were expecting children.. a common party conversation would be "what should we name the kid?" Every set of to-be parents wanted suggestions.. and these parties would resemble that famous Standard Chartered Manhattan "Dinkoo" ad...hilarious and lots of fun...

But for us the naming game wouldn't end at the party . The Husband had bought Maneka Gandhis "Book of Hindu Names " and would spend hours browsing through it. So after each such party we would sit down and look for "nice" names... the ones in the book are horrible by the ways.

However, this' looking for names' exercise would invariably end up with the both of us fighting over names for our future kid . According to the Husband... everyone in his family had names starting with the alphabet D and so his children would also follow the family tradition and be named with D. Initially I didn't say anything and so we started looking for "nice and modern " names with D. The great book had some awful suggestions..... like for boys.. Duryodhan and Dritarashtra and Drona and for girls...Draupadi, and Daman and stuff... I was horrified..

The husband then says ... not only should the name be with D but also be pleasing to the Bong ear and also be easy to pronounce by the Bongs ..so none of my modern names would do.

So we would end up fighting....and end result ...me in tears and him facing away from me and fast asleep. All this mind you when we were no where near any plans of starting a family.

Then we suddenly found ourselves in a position to actually seriously look for a "nice" name for our -to be child. So we too had a party for cousins and friends....to help us by giving us name suggestions..... it was a disaster... We still had that D stipulation.. but had come to an understanding or so I thought.

We would stick with the D business for him but I would get to choose the name and since Bongs always have pet names or what we call Daaknaams....we would choose that together.

So suggestions came pouring in from all quarters... From the senior citizens quarter ... we got names like Deependu...Diptesh....Deepankar....etc.. all very very Bong names... and very sad as far as I was concerned...from my cousins... who are mostly from Delhi...we got suggestions like Devinder and Deepinder..and Damanjit....(they thoroughly enjoyed our pained expressions..i am sure)..from some others we got Damodar and Dushyant..... even a Deen Dayal and Deena Nath....yes... horrifying...I know. My Mom came up with Tridip...completely ignoring the D business saying it was a bit of both our names.. cute ma...but sorry!!! There was also a suggestion of Don Chaudhuri and Daroon Chaudhuri....which thankfully both of us laughed over but VETOED!

I suggested Dhruv...but was promptly told in Bongland he would be called... Dhroobo.... which was awful....

By the ways, most of the suggestions were for boys names.. as thankfully both the Husband and I had reached a consensus on a shortlist of three girls names.

Even for girls names ,in fact, I like Dia..which would be written as Diya but was promptly told .. that she would be tormented her entire college life with "Eh Dia! Kisko Dia? Kya Dia?".Actually come to think of it now.. which ever name I suggested was vetoed for some reason or the other.

The Husband.. was fixated on Dhritiman...for some reason.... and I hated it ..for it remined me of Shaktiman and Hanuman. The saving grace came from my sweet new Brother-in-law. ( The husbands Sisters new Mallu husband)... When he heard of the Dhritimaan option... he promptly SMSd me back saying " Drit? what? Man?"...lol . Thankfully that settled it... If the poor kids own Uncle couldn't pronouce his name what was the point. Thanks Nitin for that.

In the middle I got fed up with the D business and announced that I would name my kid with S as the two men in my life and family before marriage ( Dad and bro) have names with S. So i suggested Shantanu... there was also a hunk in college by that name who was also a brain and an INLAKs scholar to Cambridge. But was told by the Husband... that the poor chap would be teased with Shanta"nonu".... it seems... and to top it all and much to the Husbands cheap thrills it was substantiated by a friend.... who when he heard the Shantanu suggestion.... also came up with Shanta"nonu".....Ufff!!!!

The husband was also dying to find a "cute " daaknaam for his kid... He by the ways loved "Dinkoo"(yuck!)...then told me one morning that we would call our first kid... Tumtum and the second Pikpik....( he was given silent treatment for the entire weekend)....then came up with a list of pathetic ones like Potla and Choochoo and Puchka ( will leave my reactions for you to guess)

Anyways , we finally managed to shortlist a name for a boy and a girl. Something Bong but not really typically Bong...something everyone would be able to say with ease. I even have the Daaknaams settled.. as in I chose them and the husband has had no say.... you see am pregnant and have tears on a leaky tap....

We shall let you know the name of the child when it does finally arrive... as I have said in my previous blogs... am still waiting !!!!