Aisha

“Sameera?”

She turns her head away. That should mean a no.

“...Sanjana?”

She turns her head the other way. Another no.

“Chochu?”

She looks bored [her usual expression where Sappu and I are concerned!] but at least she looks my way [even if it is for a fraction of a second…but then when you are just a week old, a fraction of a second means a lot!]

“Kochu?”

She looks my way again [now, that’s rare! Sappu and I have tried many things to snare her attention, short of performing cartwheels!]

“Baby-lee?”

She’s actually looking at me for more than 5 seconds! [Okay, fine! She was actually looking at…something behind my right shoulder…prrfffffff!]

But I was feeling successful, victorious even, as I marched up to Jaya and told her the names the baby and I had discussed and chosen.

She looked at me as if I’d gone daft and turned away [something I’m pretty much used to :P] but I persisted.

“We’re looking for a name, Manisha [my pet name – confusing to you? Ask me about it!]”, she explained patiently [but then she is the soul of patience].

“If I can have four names, [yes, there are two more…prrrffff!] why can’t she? She’s my niece! And she’s too tiny to be saddled with a name more than two syllables long!”

By then Jaya had stopped listening! [did I say she was patient?]

After that it was a flurry of activity as the net was scanned, friends were asked and in some instances attempts were made to join arbit syllables to come up with a name! Names were tossed around like confetti and as always – if someone liked one name, there had to be at least four others who didn’t like it!

The top runners were Svara [the goddess of sound – since both Jaya and Aji, my bro-in-law, are singers], Aalia, Allira, Antara, Aneira [that’s a Welsh one meaning snow], Ayana [did you notice, most of the names began and ended with an ‘a’? Weirdly, we all seemed to think alike in that sense!] but we still hadn’t found ‘the’ name – the special one for our special baby.

Finally, it was Aji who came up with ‘Aisha’ [life in Swahili, yes, we searched far and wide]. However, we are not big on giving sole credit – not when it was something this important. Most of us muttered under our breath, “even I’d thought of it…I just didn’t think you’d like it!”

And so Aisha she was [I guess baby was happy with the name, for she remained quiet and calm all through the naming ceremony – not a long time, since all the ‘ceremony’ consisted of was her father whispering the name thrice in her ears – yes, but by baby standards she was the soul of decorum!]

Strangely, no one has gotten around to calling her ‘Aisha’ yet – perhaps when she is a little older…to me she remains ‘Baby-lee’!

Jaya, Aji and Aisha (aka Baby)