Posted on 10/22/2011 6:53:56 PM PDT by posterchild
MUMBAI, India (AP) — More than 200 Indian girls whose names mean "unwanted" in Hindi chose new names Saturday for a fresh start in life.
A central Indian district held a renaming ceremony it hopes will give the girls new dignity and help fight widespread gender discrimination that gives India a skewed gender ratio, with far more boys than girls.
The 285 girls — wearing their best outfits with barrettes, braids and bows in their hair — lined up to receive certificates with their new names along with small flower bouquets from Satara district officials in Maharashtra state.
In shedding names like "Nakusa" or "Nakushi," which mean "unwanted" in Hindi, some girls chose to name themselves after Bollywood stars like "Aishwarya" or Hindu goddesses like "Savitri." Some just wanted traditional names with happier meanings, such as "Vaishali" or "prosperous, beautiful and good."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
It is not as bad as unwanted girls aborted without restrictions in China.
I read the article thinking there would be an explanation as to why someone names a child like this - In fact I expected to learn they were orphans - but no explanation. So very sad
Not that bad. We had a contest in my office once [former prosecutor] for dumbest defendant names. Runners up were sets of siblings Lawrence and Larry, Hiawatha and Osceola, and Eldorado and Coupe de Ville. First runner up was a girl named female [fe-mahl-ae]. Winner was a female named Placenta.
Those are such nice looking young women, I am glad they got new names. On the very slight plus side for India there is at least enough awareness and cultural change that an event like this managed to get organized. Their parents are the ones who should of been ashamed of their old names, for it showed them to be ignorant and insensitive.
bttt
I'm talking about how those beautiful young women come to America and turn into beautiful, calculating be0tches.
However, that might have something to do with the upper castes and as I understand it fathers are really miserable to their daughters.
Some1 being “punished with a baby” (the president’s own words)
Reminds me of some mournful Biblical names that commemorated the depressing context in which the child was conceived or born. Ichabod (the glory is gone) is one such name. Another name IIRC means “painful.” Still, to call a child “unwanted” in any language is rather cruel. How does the child understand that this naming situation is the parents’ fault, not the child’s? Good on the Indians for providing a way to purge that ugly name. It would be better if they would ban it.
Almost any women can turn into calculating beotches (and men into calculating bastids). It’s a human fault as much as a cultural problem.
Oh... the “painful” name is “Sarai.”
Reminds me of the movie “Water” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_(2005_film)
(That last trio was from Escaping From the Declining Fall of the Roaming Umpire, Program VII, Chapter XV, a classical fiasco brought to you on USUK, a service of Channel 85.)
[[From Procter and Bergman of the Firesign Theatre.]]
India and China are heading for serious problems. Too many boys, way too few girls. That’s a lot of pent up testosterone.
The Noble Savage, polluted only by our Western ways?
From my reading of it I gathered that in that culture, girls are considered quite expensive because they traditionally must give a bridegroom’s family a huge dowry...lots of wealth...before the girl can be married off. If you have a son, you have the prospect of your family receiving wealth from his bride, plus (from other reading I’ve done) in the bride you get another free household worker.
Economics. Not saying it’s right, but that seems to historically be the culture.
How different the world would be if we followed Biblical teaching and the groom left his home to live. Even better, if they went to live with her parents! The family would be much stronger, gain a bread winner, and even the children would be valued, male and female.
Thanks
Indeed. Good points.
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