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Rajiv Gandhi from Kerala’s Idukki remembers former PM ahead of his death anniversary
Rajiv’s grandfather Megavarnan was an ardent supporter of the Congress party and named his newborn grandson after the stalwart in 1985.
What’s in a name? A lot, says Rajiv Gandhi (35) of Marayur in hilly Idukki district in Kerala, who shares his name with the former prime minister.
Rajiv’s grandfather Megavarnan was an ardent supporter of the Congress party and named his newborn grandson after the stalwart in 1985. Though he basked in the glory in school, Rajiv soon started facing problems. His friends and others used to bully him. He took it in his stride but had to often explain to people how he got the name.
Ahead of the death anniversary of former PM Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, the man from Idukki says Gandhi’s early death was a big loss to the country.
“I read he was a good leader and started computer in the country. Sad, the country lost him at a young age,” he said.
Though he’s now known by his first name, in all official records he is still Rajiv Gandhi. When the former PM was assassinated in 1991, he was six but still remembers that his grandfather and others cried that day.
Not good in his studies, Rajiv started doing farm jobs after Class 12. A good farm hand, he often goes to the Marayur forest nursery as a temporary worker. The “name game” is nothing new in plantation areas of Idukki - just walk around he you can see many Gandhis, Nehrus, Napoleans and others.
On the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation Mahathma Gandhi last year, Idukki district Congress committee had arranged a gathering of people carrying the name Gandhi. At least 100 ‘Gandhis’ had responded to the invitation and later on popular demand they also included Nehrus. Hence, hundreds of Gandhis and Nehrus rubbed shoulders on October 2 last year and shared their experiences. The vice-president of the Kerala unit of Congress, A K Mani, said many plantation workers still love to name their children after national heroes.
Keralites’ love for names of Russian leaders and other sports legends are well known. You can meet many Breshnev, Khrushchev, Lenin, Olga and Pushkin in the interiors. Every year, Russian cultural centre in Thiruvananthapuram organises a meet of such people.
“Earlier, party supporters were mad over Communist legends. As the ideology declined the world over this trend is also on the wane,” said V Lenin, a teastall owner in Thiruvananthapuram. Agreed senior journalist M J Babu, hailing from hill destination Munnar. “Keralites are nostalgic about their great leaders. So many eponyms are still around,” he said.
In north Kerala, where people breathe soccer, many still love to name the newborn after their soccer greats. At one point, religious leaders were forced to issue a ‘fatwa’ in Malappuram to rein in crazy soccer fans. In Kozhikode, a Muslim League leader had named his daughter Brasilia, capital of Latin American country Brazil. Brasilia was councillor of the Kozhikode Corporation and is now helping her businessman husband run an apparel unit in the city.
