The other day I made a joke to my American friend that all I had to do was blurt out a sound and then add the letters "esh" onto the end of that sound to figure out someone's name in Bhuj. Anyone on the street. Perhaps it was insensitive, but then I started to really think about the names of all the Indians I know here. And in my head, to the tune of pop-goes-the-weasel or something like that, this is what happened:
THERE'S...........
Miten and Hiten (web designers from Ahmedabad)
Hiren and Kiren (neighbor kid, boss)
Rupesh, Mupesh, Mukesh (coworker, vegetable vendor, coworker)
Litesh, Hitesh, Mitesh (boss' husband's brother, coworker, coworker)
Ramesh, Ritesh, Dharmesh (Ashram director, coworker, coworker)
Manesh, Ganesh, Dinesh (coworker, elephant god, coworker)
Kamlesh and Sailesh (coworkers in Bihar)
Haresh and Paresh (boss, coworker)
Jignish and Jagdish (neighbor boy, Ashram guy)
Sandeep, Sanjay, Sankalp (boss, boss, boss)
Ajay, Jay, Jaydeep (coworker, coworker, my given Indian name)
Vijay and Visenji (coworker, coworker)
Vishal and Vishram (coworker, coworker)
Daval and Raval (father and son; coworker, watchman)
AND.....
More than a few Bharats, or, "India" in Hindi. As if you named your kid America.
Then I hummed it again.
That's all for now, off to Bihar for 2 weeks! See ya.
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