Baby Baji Forevermore

When choosing aname for a baby,many factorscome into play:the meanings of the name,the religious context, andthe historical or culturalsignificance. Many people in theSubcontinent believe that ournames have a decisive impacton our lives and therefore carefulconsideration should be givenwhen naming a newborn. However,in marked contrast to this, scantattention is paid to the nicknamesthat are often associated with thebaby’s name either from day one orin adulthood.

In Pakistan, one easily comesacross a never-ending varietyof nicknames including Guddu,Babloo, Chunnu, Munnu, Guriya,Pinky, Pappu and Puppy.The world of nicknames iscontinuously evolving and, onoccasion, can appear quitecomplicated and often strange.Interestingly, whether for theright or the wrong reasons,nicknames have immensepotential to overshadow ourreal names – the official identitygiven to us at birth.

Nicknames are also a lessacknowledged and underdiscussed part of our literarylandscape. In fact, despitethe enormous number anddiverse range of nicknamesthat Urdu generates, an Urdudictionary of nicknames has yetto be produced – and so thewhereabouts of Kallo, Mallo,and Sallo, and the likes ofChammu, Gulabo, and Jamalo,remain a mystery to us.

From the word go, a newbornis often called Munna, Munni,Munnu, Nanna, Guddu, Guriya,Guddi, Baby, Cutie, Sweetieor Babli. This instant identitythen works in parallel with theofficial given name – the onearrived at after deliberation,scrutiny, discussion and thepersonal preferences of one orboth parents. In some cases,people tend to call the childusing a short-form, modified andsometimes distorted version ofthe original name – Sarfaraz asSaify, Faizan as Faizy, Iftikhar asIfti, Imran as Immu, Waqas asWiki, Shahzad as Shazy, Shaukatas Shoki, Shahida as Shaddu,Shabnam as Shabbo, Zeeshanas Shani, and Zulfiqar as Zulfi.

Then there are the nicknameswe attribute to one anotherto express love and affection.The ones that become termsof endearment within a smallergroup – couples, siblings,classmates and friends.The Urdu phrase pyar sebulana best describes the intentbehind calling people by theirnicknames. However, in somecases, these childhood identitiesremain in place for the rest ofone’s life, so that we come tomeet a Baby Baji or a MunniBaji in their late seventies.‘Baby’ is perhaps one of themost popular nicknames in the Subcontinent. The TV serialBaby Baji truly reflects theubiquitous presence of an oldpro Baby Baji living next door.

As seen in many urbanlocalities, people with a lessliterate and poorer socioeconomic backgrounds tendto coin more interesting yetblunter nicknames, and whichsometimes make little or nosense. From Laddan, Babban,Nabban, Namman and Pappanto Kallan, Munnan, Chamman,Gullan, Cheena, Ponya andBitto, one wonders about therationale behind these nonliterary gems. Jazzing up thenicknaming mania, sobriquetssuch as Chadda, Dhakkan,Blanka, Funtar, Tabahi, Chingariand Tunari – along with ahost of other out-of-the-boxnicknames – defy logic but arenevertheless used with gustoby men and women of all ages.And when common words suchas X-ray, pateela, chamcha, topiand carrom board can be usedas nicknames, then the sky is definitely not the limit whenapplying nicknames in this partof the world.

In my old neighbourhood,a family of butchers wouldalways turn to my late father,an Urdu poet and numerologist,when it came to naming anewborn child. Using the bestof his knowledge and the helpof a host of numerologicalreferences and insights, myfather suggested names likeUmair, Owais and Shahzad,which they wholly accepted.But a short while later, muchto my father’s shock, Umairwas nicknamed ‘Cappu’, Owais‘Chapatu’ and Shahzad ‘Chooi’.Clearly, no grammar limitations orlanguage rules are followed. Feelfree to choose any word fromany language spoken under thesun, without regard to meaningor the alignment of the starsor planetary movements. In aland ruled by Chooi, Cappu andChapatu, nicknames go beyondanything resembling logic.

The well-known political cartoonist Feica once revealedthat he used to call his two youngdaughters CTBT (comprehensivenuclear test ban treaty), a termthat became popular in thelate nineties. There is also atouch of intimacy attached to anickname, whereby we do notallow anyone else to use it. Forexample, when at home, Quaidi-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnahand Mohtarma Fatima Jinnahwere ‘Jin’ and ‘Fati’ to each other.A nikah khawan once said hehad to wait an hour to confirmthe bride’s real name, as she wasmostly known by her nickname.Like your original name, yournickname is your personal spaceshared with a selected few.In the world of showbizand literature, finding peoplewho actually use their originalnames is not easy. Perhapsmany prefer to hide behind thefaçade of a Bunty or a Babli,rather than grow up. However,not everyone wants to havea sobriquet or be called byanything other than their originalname. But then there are alsopeople who revel in having morethan one nickname – a telltalesign perhaps of a dissociativeidentity disorder?

A nickname describes aperson’s characteristics – positiveor negative, true or false. Namesthat include Billo Rani, Tuk Tuk,Shahid Afraidi, Maulana Diesel,Showbaz Sharif, Mr 10 Percent,Chief Saab, Nakam Khan, andTractor Trolley. Clearly, unlikeWilliam Shakespeare’s line,“What’s in a name?”, a nicknamemight not be as sweet as itsounds. Be it Ali Zafar’s Channoor Abrar ul Haq’s Billo, we mustbe selective when associatingour loved ones with a namethey are not born with. Fromnicknames with no meanings(Gogi, Momo and Bobo) to thosewith bad connotations (Noni), weshould never take our informalidentities for granted.

Faizan Usmani is Senior Editor,Intersys, an international IT firm.faizanusmani76@gmail.com