My three year old nephew has made friends with a little boy called Parthib. That's a pretty difficult name to pronounce at any age, right? So it isn't surprising that my nephew uses what is in his mind the closest possible alternative to address his equally young companion.
I remember the time I was working in an interior design firm in Calcutta, where a carpenter was dispatched to collect a book called Exclusiv Wohnen. Obviously this poor, barely literate man could not remember such a complicated name, and came asking for something that in Bengali translates to "19 in 21".
This is the essential nature of the human being. We take something that is unfamiliar, give it a context we can relate to, and hey presto! We have the Indian Barbie. A skinny, blond, blue-eyed doll recoloured to look like....well, Liz Hurley in a sari.
How did I come here from names of people and books? I dunno. Seemed to make sense to me when I started.
Anyway, my nephew calls his friend Rapid.
