Genesis of Names

The intention is not to hurt any sentiments but to bring back those sweet memories that we will carry till eternity.

Life on a B-School is definitely tough; at the same time it has its own sweet moments too. Moments that brings a smile to one's face when one goes down the memory lane. The nighouts, singing sessions at the top of voice, fighting against the deadline for submitting the assignements, cases and all, cramming for the exams and many more. This is what life at a B-School is all about. I was lucky enough to be a student on a B-School from 2003 to 2005. Ours was a dream batch;'Dream Batch 2005' the vision shared by our former director whom we fondly called "Baap". God has gifted everybody with a wonderful father but our batch and those preceeding ours were endowed with two of them. Our director wasn't only Baap but he was "Baap Re Baap".We had our own share of fun and masti on campus but one thing that we will cherish from the B-School would be nicknames that we received and I bet that they'll remain with us forever.

Let me start with myself, I was Moti to my friends. The name was a distorted construction of my real name. People would mistaken my nick for a dog's.

'Dhuddu' undoubtedly the most famous nickname on campus. I am not really sure about the origin of this but thanks to Manu Paaji (Patiala Bouncer/ Hawa Mein Udhne Wala Safedh Rang ka Bola Bala Panchhi ) for making the name a rage on campus. It was the hottest brand around and poor Abhishek Dube, he was at the receiving end from every Tom, Dick and Harry for the whole of two years of MBA.

'Chilka' Another case of appropriate branding. Well there was absolutely no difference between a chilka and Abhinav Prakash. Poor Aditi Shah for that day onwards she was 'Chilki' . Although for me Prachi Garg was original chilki for her physique.

'Machine Raj' His swagger reminded us of the machine which has lost all nuts and bolts and which is about to fall apart piece by piece and bit by bit any moment. Poor Manish Raj, he thought that his swagger was similar to that of Brad Pitt's. He was grossly mistaken; it was far far away from it.

'Jaadu' A popular nick again, I again plead guilty for not being aware of the origin of this name. But one incident which I can't really forget when all the inmates of the hostel were waving at Jaadu who was standing in the fields behind the hostel with his so called girlfriend and that too when he left the hostel on the pretext of paying obeisance to the deity at the temple. Poor Vikas Sharma, he was not knowing that hawk eyes were following him and his every moment.

'Monkey' He took to this name rather others started calling him Monkey after his song Monkey Man was an instant hit on campus. Poor Anshuman Singh, by the way he had company on campus 'Chimpu' (Sumek Singh). Chimps and monkeys share same genus.

'Sabu' Undoubtedly the undisputed king of the software industry. Software industry? What am I talking about? Take clue from the recent bollywood flick Kalyug. Does it ring any bell?

'Bali Omar' Well what can I say more about him? I am groping for words. Those who are in awe with bollywood might know what this nick means.

'Jojo' His Americanised accent and he yelling 'Hey People' in the microphone while anchoring the cultural programs on campus. You were damn good Soumik De.

'Pandu' His nick originated from his name. He in real life is Abhinav Pandeya. A good lyricist though his singing qualities were and are debatable. Hats off to you Abhinav Pandeya for the beautiful batch anthem.

'Dobbie' His name I guess had to do with his big ears. I am unsure about that. By the way Karthik Natrajan liked being called by that name. He reminded us of Captain Spoch from Star Trek.

'Ramu' or 'Ramu-The Naukar' Vyom Krishna had just come back to campus from a trip to Goa where he had his head tonsured. I heard that Dobbie had tricked him into doing that. Well, when he landed on campus AOE (Age of Empires) was a rage on campus and some said that he resembled a villager in the computer game.

There were many other nicks which I really can't recollect, may be my batchmates can be of some help in helping me out.

Lets shift the attention to the sixth floor, the most happening floor on the campus in the first year. We had 'Jungle' who resembles an apeman from some bygone era. He munches mangoes like apples and not to mention the body hair which reminds me of the tropical forests of Congo that I saw on television. There was 'Dixcy' or 'Sasti Masti', poor Vivek Dikshit, I don't know why he was branded that way by Manu. Then we had 'Chunni', nothing to do with Chunnilal of Devdas, but Sanjeev Agarwal loved being referred to as Chunni. 'Tambi' or 'Maloom' he was always trying to save the world. Anand Shankar, one would always find him on volley ball court, cricket pitch or participating or organizing any function.

I had to bear with 'Chubby' or 'Chubbazah' who made our life miserable by making us listen to his select few songs over and over again. One of the saongs being Chura Liya Hain Tumne. Ashish Jain I can't stand that song again. That leaves to very likeable, bald headed err...hairless 'Kotler' or 'GG', I swear I never understood his marketing fundas. I am not sure about others, but I safely assume that they are no better than me in this regard.

There was some others too who belonged to other floors but were mostly found idling on the sixth floor 'Phukshat' or 'Gyaani Babu' or 'Paparazzi', Akshat Gupta was the grapevine of the campus. He had all the information not only about the happenings on the campus but also about the personal lives about the people on campus. The only hitch being the reliability of the information. The reliability of the information was totally unreliable. We also had a character called 'Chichu' which happens to be the abridged form of Chichora, Manish Kothari, from being a CA(Chartered Account) to a mere chichora, quite a journey.

PS:- There is one common thread that binds most of the names, our very own Manu Paaji. He is the creator of all these brands, way to go Manu Paaji.

PS:- PS:- I am extremely sorry, I aoplogize to Joydeep Dutta for I forget to mention him. Let me take this opprtunity to introduce Jenaab, Maalik, Maalik Magarmaach, Baby and many more; I may not be aware of them. He happens to be the Benagli- Sardar of Batch 2005. And of late he has become an avid fan of apna Himesh Reshammiya and I am sure on his return from London we defnitely would be treated to Himesh's songs.