Mobile brands join official ranks as names in rural Rajasthan

If you hear someone in this remote town in Rajasthan saying, “Rashtrapati has gone to graze goats” or “Pradhan Mantri’ has left for the city to purchase essentials”, don’t be surprised.

There is more. A doctor is routinely asked to prescribe medicines for ‘Samsungs’ and ‘Androids’ suffering from dysentery.

Naming children after senior government positions, high offices and more recently mobile brands and accessories is not new in this district. So apart from ‘Rashtrapati’, ‘Pradhan Mantri’, ‘Samsung’ and ‘Android’, there are persons called ‘SIM Card’, ‘Chip’, ‘Gionee’, ‘Miss Call’, ‘Rajyapal’ and even ‘High Court’.

In Ramnagar village, about 10 km from the district headquarters with a population of a little over 500 people from the Kanjar community, children are usually named after high offices and popular figures. Though most of the people in the village are illiterate, their names speak otherwise.

A woman was so impressed by the aura of the district collector during his visit to the village that she named her grandson ‘Collector’; the child — now 50 — never even made it to school.

Forced by circumstances to visit police stations and courts, the villagers are bowled over by the reputation and dignity of officials.

“They tend to name their children after posts and offices like ‘IG’, ‘SP’, ‘Hawaldar’ and ‘Magistrate’,” says a teacher at the village government school.

A disabled person named ‘High Court’ is popular in the village for his fierce nature. At the time of his birth, his grandfather was granted bail by the High Court in a criminal case and hence his name.

Mobile brands and accessories are popular as names among members of the Moggiya and Banjara communities from villages in the Nainwa region of the district. “So you will come across several people named ‘Nokia’, ‘Samsung’, ‘SIM Card’, etc. in Bargani, Arniya, Hanumantpura, Suwaliya and Sesola villages of Nainwa,” said Ramesh Chand Rathore, who works at the registration counter of Nainwa’s Community Health Centre.

Women and girls from the Meena community in Arniya village have their own share of uncommon names — ‘Namkeen’, ‘Photobai’, ‘Jelabi’, and an unfortunate ‘Phaltu’.

“We were stunned when we first came across these names. But now we are used to them,” Mr. Rathore says, adding that ‘Smartphone’ and ‘Android’ are some new entries to the list.