The one on nicknames

(This was supposed to be written instead of the previous post, but wats a good story without a prologue right? )

Now nicknames are very interesting, cos there're memories behind each nickname a person has. And each story is just as goofy and just as interesting as the other.. And your true identity is always hidden in your nickname ( or so at least i like to believe)

F.O.F ( new comers look at previous posts to find out who F.O.F is) and I were having another of our random conversations in the middle of the night when we came to the topic of nicknames.. Now he's got a very nice name, but its boring ( and a tad bit formal) to use a person's name in every conversation.. Nicknames are somehow more personal and a whole lot more fun. Thus began a night long conversation on suitable nicknames for each other.. Now as always i shall start with another story and come back to the interesting conversation i had ( what can i say, i love the air of suspense.. told yu i could be a drama queen)

So here's the story of my first nickname..

You know how kids pick up words ending with vowels more easily.. and most times they're repeated vowels.. for instance words like 'tata' and 'mumma' and the likes.. Well i was no exception.. Though my mum had tonnes of mallu names to call me by (read molu), i decided to coin an all new word of my own- 'Dappa' ( pronounced the same way as 'cuppa')

What logic went behind the invention of this name i know not.. But ever since i could speak, i called myself dappa.. and anything around me had to be prefixed with dappa.. for instance instead of jus askin for chocolate, i'd say 'dappa choco give' or instead of saying ' i don't want to go to school', i'd say 'dappa school no'.. Now everyone thought that it was incredibly cute ( Not jus the name, but the way i associated everything to the name/word dappa) and so the name stuck on..

And over the years, several other 'names' have emerged from this simple name.. Such as 'Double-u' ( coined by my mom's brother, after the weird way in which i can twist my eyebrows)

'Dappu' ( come on, its the comman cliche' right, the ending with 'u' name)

'Dapp'

So thats bout the 'name' i gave myself ( and as boring as this post might be to you, i'm having incredible fun walkin down memory lane or should i say 'funny name' lane)

Then there were the series of 'Deep' related names, like Deepu, Deep and what not.. But one of my all time favourites is 'Dips'.. Somethin my dad gave me.. and incidentally its also wat F.O.F has started calling me..

These were the 'normal' names, and now for the silly ones..

Lets go in order shall we..

Enter 4th grade, there comes a guy (Kumaresh i think his name was)

You know the whole ' the boy teases yu cos he secretly likes yu' story right, well apparently this guy DID like me, but i sure din like him for the weird nickname he gave me.. I'd jus come bak from Delhi, and no matter how mallu my family is, we prefer eating roti to rice.. So paranthas were a usual lunch..

And thus the boy decides to call me- *wait for it*- 'CHAPPATI!!!! Apparently it rhymes with Deepti.. So all through primary and middle school this guy and his 'gang' call me chappati.. (Till 8th when i finally realized i could do something about it and ended up punching the guy)

Next.. We're in 9th and guys have started lookin beyond 'Pokemon' and started discovering girls.. Now i was this tall, THIN thing in school and most guys were too shy to come and speak to me ( it could've also been the fact that most of them were afraid to talk to the 'teacher's daughter')

Now i'm the 9th grader's definition of 'hot' and nothing describes me better than a matchstick, so there yu have it, they started calling me ' THEEPETTI' ( which means match stick, or rather match box)

Next stop, 11th grade.. I'm the nerdy dancer/ artist who keeps to herself but when let lose, cracks crazy jokes and is basically fun to hang out with.. Then starts a fad, i started scribbling the initials 'dp' wherever i go.. On benches, on the floor, in all the text books, i write it EVERYWHERE in different styles.. The trend setter that i am, suddenly everyone starts spellin their name this way.. Divi (short for Divya) became DV.. Vaish (short for Vaishnavi) became YC and so on.. And so, for my kooky trends, i was christened Dippy ( or dp)

College was next.. Nothin interesting happened till my second year, when finally the triplets were formed!! Now i'd taken an oath of sorts to stop swearing.. Hence everytime i wanted to curse someone, i'd refer to them as a bumboola or a bumboo or jus plain bum.. Thus the name bumboo stuck to me( Vedha apparently yawns like a cat, hence she became Billi and supri who jus cant seem to keep her mouth shut became Blabber)

Those were all the names i have and like, and you never know, i might gain more as life moves on..And someday when I'm all old and grey and I'm signing some voucher at office, I'll think of all the names i have/ had and I'll have somethin to laugh about..

Love,

Bumboo/ Dips/ Dippy/ Theepetti/ Chappati

Ps. I forgot to tell yu what i called F.O.F... apparently the guy is 'slightly' scared of crossing roads and the first time we hung out, he literally sprinted across an empty road, so i named him 'road runner' or R.R. for short.. he loves the name, i love his company, all is good in the world \m/