Monday, March 17, 2008

Namesake express

I love my name. For people who have still not gathered, it means, "a span of 100 years, a century"; and it IS a common name among the Bengali. Well, some highly amusing incidents that happened with me co-related to my name.
Every time, Every damn time I introduce myself, I get it. "Hello, my name is Shatabdi." Grin, "Express?". No, you are the first person who noticed!
Some-one actually thought that I was born in running Shatabdi Express. Gross.
People were under an illusion that my parents work(ed) for the Indian Railways. Ha ha! should try telling them that.
There were this group of people who were convinced that I used to be an athlete, ran fastest, so they changed my name to suit the same. This is the most hilarious one!
Some mates thought I had a sister [at times twin], and my parents chose to name both of us as 'Shatabdi' and 'Rajdhani'. This was the sickest one.

Well, by and large, I have lived with my name, and I like it being so unusual.

Coming back to the point,
My experiences in the mighty train I happen to share the first name with :-)
I have taken the train twice, and each time be proud of being associated with the train.

The first time, It was on my way to Goa. And I was excited as hell! Along with my parents and elder brother! Bhaiya dearest kept wondering aloud, whether we get special concessions if we shared the same name and I kept throwing disgusted looks. But I loved the journey. Yes the train was great, clean and organized. My respect for Indian railways just kept rising notches higher. Also, because the scenery was absolutely amazing. And yea, it was short :-)

The second one was the more recent one. On my way to Ahmadabad. This time with my parents. The train was a lot different, we had personalized televisions, which showed crappy stuff. Worse, we didn't even have the choice of shutting the damn things off! But the service was sexy. Every half hour, they made sure they gave us something to stuff our mouths with. but people were such bhukkads they wanted more complimentary things. Well, journey was alright, comfortable and all, but boring. Short again.

Shatabdi express somehow gives me the picture of India by large. Facilities are changing, progress is evident. But then mentality of people remains the same. Yet, not a sorry state.

It just gives me a high when I co-relate myself with something so fantastic, so forward when compared with its counterparts, something that symbolizes class, speed, time-savior, progress.....
I oh so love my name.......

18 comments:

Mephistophelian Sage said...

I know this is weird and makes no sense,but Shatabdi sounds more like Shut up Thee!!..its like I can imagine,when you were born you were such a crybaby,crying and screaming your lungs out,your parents got so freaked out and yelled "Shut up Thee(YOU)"!!!to make you keep quite.That explains the origin of your name Shatabdi!!

I think this would be enough to make you go red-faced & provoke you to make fun of my name as well.. waiting for your comments baby!! [:p]

Express said...

There you go, another incident co-related to my name. Wasn't this the arabic version of my name? And by the way, why am I hunting sense in your statements anyway!!

Btw, one of my most common pet names sure is "shatab" sounds as good as "shut-up". And I am not getting into all my nick-names, it would just be as long as a blog post itself....

And yea, I am not commenting on your name, you have been tormented enough :D

Thanks for the comments man,
waiting to hear more from you.

hakunamatata said...

HAHA..!!
YA....
I xperienced ur so calld plight too..!!
u remember wen v met tejas..??
his first reaction was d same..!!
well even at d reception of tunga...u shared ur name wid d receptionists..haha....
so its not a new name and not at all tongue twisting..but a nice name...
and it was real fun reading dat blog...keep on writin such stuff...
cheers..!!

Express said...

@ Poorva,
He he, happens all the time baby, all the time....

P.S. Tejas is the Executive head-chef at hotel tunga where I am ought to do my internship. The interview with him was one of the worst I have ever given :D

Anonymous said...

Waah... thios blog brought back old memories... I have traveld in it bout 2-3 times....when my dad was posted in chd. haha..n yes do agree that they give so much food so as stuff your mouth full... but we did not have personalised tv 's :( :( :(

Unknown said...

Great post, especially the beginning and the end.

Mr. J. Nehru once said about dams, "They are the temples of Modern India". I feel that trains are similar, though not exactly temples. And you know what, the first Shatabdi express was named as such to commemorate the Centenary of Mr. Nehru's birth!

So I'd be proud to own that name :)!

The Indian Railways is a battered old organization somehow standing still (My Dad works there, so I know). Yet, it would be a folly to underestimate the importance of this organization in our daily lives.

Gunjan Aylawadi said...

boy!! ur name is shatabdi n u claim that its a common name!
thats really interesting!

metal-militant said...

Even I like my name.Its another name for lord shiva,the destroyer.I havent really destroyed anything much in life,but I'm known for making some pretty...crude suggestions sometimes.

Express said...

@Samby
Its good u din have them man! they showed some 1980s ka flop movie with some B grade actors making out half the time, so embarrassing.........And then they closed that and put up some sidey detective serial of DD metro, you so wanna see that!!!

@ alok,
Oh, then YOU should be called shatabdi!!!

Oh a serious node, I love the trains man, prefer them to any other mode of travel. I just depend on the local trains so much! Not underestimating the organization in anyway. And you know what, I have so much to talk about this, I might as well write a new post on this.
Thanks for the comment! :-)

Express said...

@ gunj
It is a common name along bengalies man. And usually it is not common, thats why i get all these reactions, he he..

@ ishaan
Me likes your name too, high-five!!!
Me even likes your comment btw, :-P

AG said...

uv been tagged:)

cheers

gypsy said...

i liked the way u have ended it...givin the whole experience a new perspective...

AG said...

hehehhehe
nice one gal
even i got ur name saved as shatabdi express on my cell heheheh

sori if u ever felt bad
strange things have associated with ur name lolzz
me just express

heheh
nice one !!!

cheers

Express said...

@ d sinner
Thank-u for the comment. I am not all that great a writer man, just scribble some random stuff here and there. Nothing compared to y'all...
Its just so good to hear praises, :-P thanko thanko!

@ jiggs
Cummon, more that half the people I know do that, ha ha! Its all good..
Didn't you start calling me "kabul express" sometime ago? funny that pet name died soon, I kinda liked it :-P
Thanks for the comment.

Shabarni Gupta said...

dat was a really nice piece, i mean i was laughing throughtout as i was reading ur post....very well (witty) riten.
p.s.complementin d others wits actually to assosiated ur name to so many things out of which i had thot only of few, but yeah d way u presented it was cool.

all the experiences dat u rote were really hilarious ni also liked d ending note to it...

i dun kno bout others but i had fun readin it...

Alisha said...

heyyy!!nice blog!!
do comment on mine too...i rarely update though...but m sure gonna in the holidays!hehe

neways..watchu upto aajkal?

Express said...

alish! scrapbook nahi hai?

gr8 2 c ya on bloggers, just gotta knw abt urz y'day by fundoo aka jiggy..

Hope to see more of you gal, I ll check yours soon...

Thanks for the comment :-)

Rajesh said...

Oh!!! Im still wonder if ur name REALLY isd Shatabdi..anyways nice name...first time i'm comin to know of such a name