Rathods ...

Until, i was 20 something, i didnt realise the respect my surname had in the indian community . everyone has a surname, the only thing which is tagged on to you before you were born in this world. the existence of you in your mothers womb is sufficent enough to acquire the last name of the family. In last few grades of the school everyone was point blank and in thier own world. i particularly had difficulty in remembering the first name of the full class, let alone the last name. Every student had an alternative name for calling them, and it should be surprising to anyone, except some girls, all 60 students had acquire names associated to thier activities, behaviour or personal traits. there was one my friends bhavesh who always talked about scientific formulas and stuff, he was named ' scientist'. a person who always bragged in front of teachers was named 'lal' (lal in hindi means a big time bragger). some of the boys given names included lata (Kulraj), goti-(Omkar), baila (anuraj), mahabali(ankur), Bhaiya (Avnish), Kauva (Kaushal), Pur-pura (Prasad), Matka (Gautam), Bakasur (Shounak), Grass hopper.. Badi Ga** (Rahul), Rahul was also teased by the sound 'Phusssssssssss' by the whole class. we were early teenagers then and didnt know what emotions meant to anyone. however ironically i never saw a friend cry or feel anything about name callings. we had accepted that names somehow as our first names. we laughed, we played, we studied, we teased and thats how school went along the way. I was named 'Anarkaali' for some stupid play of akbar, me and my clan had undertaken on one of the camps.
Coming Back to the surnames, when i enrolled into junior college, everyone started calling me, by the surname. may be one of the reasons was a film sarfarosh starring aamir khan who was acting in a character of ACP Rathore '. I hated when the name popped up in my ears . Hi Rathod, Kaisa hain ..?
I felt offended many a times,
Rathods are Rajputs who are usually warriors, breeding horses themselves for thier kingdoms. they are heavily postured due to thier royal diets.
I did use to have a look at myself and my casual wears ,
A Jersey or T's, Blue jeans , a converse in my feets, small body posture and think do i even remotely look like a Rathod ?'
One fine day i was waiting on my bike for one of my friends at the ambadi naka which is a 4 way intersection. the respective roads leaded to railway station, anand nagar, vasai goan and ambadi road. its was afternoon and quiet. on the corner due to its geographical importance, a police station existed
One of the Police Officers who was almost drunk, stationed his jeep beside me, and pointed to come towards the police station. i said to myself 'shits- i have managed to screw myself again'. my insurance had expired 4 years ago,registration papers were at home, let alone the crazy PUC Test result. he asked me for a driving license, which i hesitantly removed from my wallet and passed it to the adjoining officer driving the jeep, who had a look at it. every mumbaikar knows how the cops are, they ask documents in the order of driving license, registration papers, insurance, and PUC. I was stuck at the 2nd round. he told me to park my bike aside and give him the vehicle keys. i resisted trying to bluff, that i will go in the rickshaw and bring the required documents. the bike is in front of your police station, why do u need the keys ?.
the adjoining officer said to the drunk one' Sahab, Rathod Hain?
the drunk driver puzzled again, had a look at my license and asked my full name ..?
i did think i have been overconfident in my acting skills, and they had some personal dues to be settled with the so called Rathod's !.
He asked in Marathi , Kay re Tusa Poora Nav Kay ?
I threwed at him quickly with a middle name too..
"Umang Dinesh Rathod".
Aaah he exclaimed ,
"Rathod ahain,aani blah blah blah blah
he started in marathi which was unfortunately or may be fortunately my fourth language.
i didnt even understand an inch of what he was trying to point niether was i intrested
all i did was casual lip-locked smiles and nodding head woobbles
he said, dont wait around the police station area excuse me i wanted to say, i was standing on the adjoining road and its you who have dragged me here.
the other officer passed my license and surprsingly the drunk one threw me a smile, i kept it in my wallet and reached for my celphone to call the wherabouts of my friend. I managed to read the text he had send me . i went home thinking on my way driving slowest at 40 KMS/ hr thinking and smiling, the first unitentional use of tangible surname had saved 50-200 .
after the conclusion of the episode, i took pride when someone called me a 'Rathod'
with grim on my face
snap, snap :)