What's In A Name?

'The sweetest word for anyone is his or her name' - said someone and rightly so.

From when I was a child until recently, I was always a little embarrassed about my name. Why 'Sreedevi', I asked my parents. Couldn't you have come up with something nicer, less-religious sounding name? Always misspelt by everyone, I found myself correcting them.

In school, I was asked if I was named after the film actress. I blushed before saying 'No'. It's not a common name and I definitely didn't like it. Cousins would tease me with film songs that have the word 'Sreedevi' in it. And when I was in college, I dabbled with numerology and concluded that my name is the reason for my apparent bad luck.

My mother told me that it's one of the many names of Goddess Lakshmi, who has 3 forms - Sri, Bhu and Durga representing Sattvik, Rajas and Tamas respectively. Well, my parents did put some thought behind it.

Now, I am ok with it. It's actually a beautiful name when pronounced right. And amateur numerology is not to be taken seriously.