Names and all that

I have always hated my name. I have a very common ethnic first name and a hard to pronounce last name. This made life very difficult when I was a kid. There were two other Reenas in class besides me. This meant that during roll-call the teacher had to call out our first names as well as last. My last name used to be called out in a whole variety of ways depending on the teachers mood and her accent. I dreaded roll-call each day. Naturally by the time I was in third some smartass bully thought it would be hilarious to torment me during recess about my name. This girl was really huge… like a teen wolf, and yours truly was a puny kid back then. This meant I was seriously lacking in the self defence department. So basically she used to trail after me during recess singing out my name and I’d spend the whole recess trying to outrun her. I wasn’t very good at the running thing either.

So yes! I hated my name back then.

I changed schools in when I was in 7^th. I went from an all-girl’s school to an all-girl’s boarding school. Oh joy! At boarding school there were more Catholics which meant every second girl was either a D’souza or a Fernandes. We also had Alphonsos, Borrettos, Sequieras, etc etc… And then there was me! Chakalakal! What does that even mean?? It’s too long and there are no records available giving directions on how to spell it. Of course in boarding school too there were 4 other Reenas besides me. Gets better, right? Actually in a weird way it did. Not immediately though. I had to spend my first year in boarding school being called ‘Chakli’. A big girl named me that. She was in 10^th and very popular. The name caught on. Bummer! 

Then, the next year I became friends with a girl who was sweet and brilliant. Somewhere in that year or maybe the next… she had a little chat with me about names. She made me love my name and take pride in it. Her reasoning was simple. She was a D’Souza and there were many other D’Souzas in school. She explained how ‘Chakalakal’ was unique. And it was. It is. So then on I took to educating people on how to pronounce my name. I still dislike my first name though. But now I’m stuck with it. And I fear becoming a ‘Reena D’Souza’. But I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens when that day comes.

Fun fact: I come from a family of R’s. My dad is called Robert, Mum – Rachil and my brother is called Reagan. So I guess that’s something right?