Wednesday, April 4, 2012

"My Name"

Today’s the second day of the Spring 2012 Quarter, and I already had a homework for my British Literature class. The homework was to write an essay, it can be a quarter of a page or more than one page, about our name. I thought it was rather interesting so I decided on publishing it here. So here it is, folks!

Indira Noor Hanifa Pranabudi. The name “Indira” has Indian roots; it refers to Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity and the wife of Vishnu. Indira also means beauty and splendor. So here is how the story starts: when I was born, my father had just come back from India for work purposes. He highly admired Indira Gandhi, who was the third prime minister of India. Hence, my parents named me Indira.

Honestly, I’m not really fond of the name “Indira.” Not because it was an Indian name, but just because it didn’t sound cool to me. I was not a very big fan of India too, because India is Asian, and as an Asian, I wanted to have a Caucasian name, because that was what Asians thought was cool. However, as I grew older, I started to appreciate my name more. My name is unique, and I would rather stick out like a sore thumb than be the same as the other kids in school. I also realized how hard it must have been for my parents to choose a name for me. If they had thought that Indira was such a bad name, they would not have named me that! I do, however, hope that my parents realized that Indira Gandhi was assassinated. I hope that doesn’t happen to me.

“Noor”, on the other hand, is derived from the Arabic language. It means light. My parents named me this so that I would be the light in the darkness, or probably what One Direction would say as someone who “lights up [someone else’s] world like nobody else.” The name “Noor,” or either wise spelt “Nur,” is also derived from the 24th Sura of the Qur’an, “An-Nur.” Noor is also my mother’s middle name.

The name “Hanifa” is derived from the Arabic language. It means true believer of Islam. Obviously, my parents named me this so that I would not stray from the Islamic path.

Last but not least, “Pranabudi” is my family name. But, no, it’s not my grandfather’s name. It’s my father’s last name, but it’s not my grandfather’s last name. In Indonesia, it isn’t common to have a family name. However, my family does. That was because we lived in the UK for 2 years, and everybody in the UK has last names, so my siblings and I added my father’s last name to our names, and it became our family name.

My grandparents give my father the name “Pranabudi” because the doctor that helped my grandmother give birth was Dr Prana, and in Indonesia, “Budi” means the good will of others. My grandparents wanted to express their gratefulness to Dr Prana, and ta dah! They named my father Pranabudi.

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