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"...There are 20 mahouts and five umbrella bearers in TTD (Tirupati-Tirumala Devasthanam) who take care of six elephants, two horses and two bulls used during special rituals and Brahmotsavams. The TTD's six elephants are named Avanija, Mahalaxmi, Vaishnavi, Padma, Padmavathi and Laxmi..."
....DC, Monday 5, March 2012
The news report doesn't mention the names of the two horses and two bulls but I am sure they do have pet-names (not to talk of the 20 mahouts and five umbrella bearers). Every owner gives his dog a pet name for sure. The first I heard was when a new Doctor was appointed to our Village Hospital and he had an Alsatian which his school-going son used to flaunt to dumb onlookers like me, throwing a bald tennis ball far away and shouting: "Tiger, Fetch it!". In one out of two attempts, Tiger did fetch it, running and catching the ball in his mouth before it landed. In the other attempt, Tiger was distracted by the enticing stray bitches...there was no Alsatian she-dog in our Village and the good Doctor was against cross-breeding.
Thurber wrote a whole piece titled: "How To Name A Dog" but towards the end he apologizes:
"This article has degenerated into a piece that should properly be entitled 'How Not To Name A Dog'. I was afraid it would. It seems only fair to make up for this by confessing to a few of the names I have given to my dogs, with the considerable help, if not, indeed, the insistence, of their mistress. Most of my dogs have been females, and they have answered, with apparent gladness, to such names as Jeannie, Tessa, Julie and Sophie. Sophie is a black French poodle whose kennel name was Christabel, but she never answered to Christabel, which she considers as foolish a name for a dog as Pamela, Jennifer, Clarissa, Jacqueline, Guinevere, and Shelmerdine. Sophie is opposed, and I am also, to Ida, Cora, Blanche and Myrtle..."
Lewis Carroll gave Alice's pet cat the name: Dinah; and there is a raging debate in the goofyspace as to whether it is a male or female; a question, as they say, that properly must concern only Dinah when it comes of age:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2011/07/importance-of-fairy-tales.html
A cow or two is ok...you can name them Laxmi and Svetha. But what would you do with a herd of a dozen buffaloes which is the norm for any buffalo-loving owner down South? Kali, Kalvi, Kaloo, Kalavathi, Kalki, Kalahani, Kalaharini, almost exhausts my inventive powers...to leave out Kalvey as very very offensive.
But the most famous buffalo in our mythology is of course the Vehicle of Lord Yama; and I was curious just now to know if it has a name (I say 'it' because I was not sure of its gender). And here is the answer I got from the Web (I quote it verbatim):
"The vehicle or Vahana that is associated with Yama, the Hindu God of Death, is the black buffalo. The name of the Vehicle of Buffalo is Paundraka. Legend has it that Paundraka was born from the thighs of Rudra form of Shiva. It is as quick as the mind. Paundraka is a He Buffalo. The black color represents the unknown world that a person goes after death. There is a belief that Buffalo is one of the most senseless animals. Just like the buffalo, Death arrives to us senselessly---and takes our life without looking at age, status, religion or any other social parameters":
http://www.hindu-blog.com/2012/01/black-buffalo-vehicle-of-yama.html
Coming to parrots, I thought pirates called their pet parrot: Polly, but Long John Silver is different; he called his parrot: Captain Flint.
In our Village it was a common sight to watch the monkey-owning street mendicants make their bread'n'butter pets perform several unwilling feats. They invariably called their breadwinners: Hanuman. Some lack of variety there, for, we have Vali, Sugreev, Angad et al (et al means I don't know anymore).
There were also an unending stream of snake-charmers but I don't recall them calling their snakes by any name...they only prodded them mercilessly till one of them stood up and blinked and pretended to dance to the pungi (been) of her owner. They could easily have named them Nag (sorry Prof!), Seshu (sorry Friend!) or Vasuki...
Coming to Vasu, a very common South Indian abbreviation for Sreenivas, NP's younger son's last name, his Bengali friends at KGP used to call him, invariably, "Basu".
From now on, I will call Aniket (Basu) as "Vasu"...
My son also was given the unpronounceable name: Sreenivas Shreenath. His Bengali friends (of both sexes) used to call him by his pet name: Sonu; and his American customers and vendors call him: "Sree"...with difficulty.
...Posted by Ishani
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"...There are 20 mahouts and five umbrella bearers in TTD (Tirupati-Tirumala Devasthanam) who take care of six elephants, two horses and two bulls used during special rituals and Brahmotsavams. The TTD's six elephants are named Avanija, Mahalaxmi, Vaishnavi, Padma, Padmavathi and Laxmi..."
....DC, Monday 5, March 2012
The news report doesn't mention the names of the two horses and two bulls but I am sure they do have pet-names (not to talk of the 20 mahouts and five umbrella bearers). Every owner gives his dog a pet name for sure. The first I heard was when a new Doctor was appointed to our Village Hospital and he had an Alsatian which his school-going son used to flaunt to dumb onlookers like me, throwing a bald tennis ball far away and shouting: "Tiger, Fetch it!". In one out of two attempts, Tiger did fetch it, running and catching the ball in his mouth before it landed. In the other attempt, Tiger was distracted by the enticing stray bitches...there was no Alsatian she-dog in our Village and the good Doctor was against cross-breeding.
Thurber wrote a whole piece titled: "How To Name A Dog" but towards the end he apologizes:
"This article has degenerated into a piece that should properly be entitled 'How Not To Name A Dog'. I was afraid it would. It seems only fair to make up for this by confessing to a few of the names I have given to my dogs, with the considerable help, if not, indeed, the insistence, of their mistress. Most of my dogs have been females, and they have answered, with apparent gladness, to such names as Jeannie, Tessa, Julie and Sophie. Sophie is a black French poodle whose kennel name was Christabel, but she never answered to Christabel, which she considers as foolish a name for a dog as Pamela, Jennifer, Clarissa, Jacqueline, Guinevere, and Shelmerdine. Sophie is opposed, and I am also, to Ida, Cora, Blanche and Myrtle..."
Lewis Carroll gave Alice's pet cat the name: Dinah; and there is a raging debate in the goofyspace as to whether it is a male or female; a question, as they say, that properly must concern only Dinah when it comes of age:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2011/07/importance-of-fairy-tales.html
A cow or two is ok...you can name them Laxmi and Svetha. But what would you do with a herd of a dozen buffaloes which is the norm for any buffalo-loving owner down South? Kali, Kalvi, Kaloo, Kalavathi, Kalki, Kalahani, Kalaharini, almost exhausts my inventive powers...to leave out Kalvey as very very offensive.
But the most famous buffalo in our mythology is of course the Vehicle of Lord Yama; and I was curious just now to know if it has a name (I say 'it' because I was not sure of its gender). And here is the answer I got from the Web (I quote it verbatim):
"The vehicle or Vahana that is associated with Yama, the Hindu God of Death, is the black buffalo. The name of the Vehicle of Buffalo is Paundraka. Legend has it that Paundraka was born from the thighs of Rudra form of Shiva. It is as quick as the mind. Paundraka is a He Buffalo. The black color represents the unknown world that a person goes after death. There is a belief that Buffalo is one of the most senseless animals. Just like the buffalo, Death arrives to us senselessly---and takes our life without looking at age, status, religion or any other social parameters":
http://www.hindu-blog.com/2012/01/black-buffalo-vehicle-of-yama.html
Coming to parrots, I thought pirates called their pet parrot: Polly, but Long John Silver is different; he called his parrot: Captain Flint.
In our Village it was a common sight to watch the monkey-owning street mendicants make their bread'n'butter pets perform several unwilling feats. They invariably called their breadwinners: Hanuman. Some lack of variety there, for, we have Vali, Sugreev, Angad et al (et al means I don't know anymore).
There were also an unending stream of snake-charmers but I don't recall them calling their snakes by any name...they only prodded them mercilessly till one of them stood up and blinked and pretended to dance to the pungi (been) of her owner. They could easily have named them Nag (sorry Prof!), Seshu (sorry Friend!) or Vasuki...
Coming to Vasu, a very common South Indian abbreviation for Sreenivas, NP's younger son's last name, his Bengali friends at KGP used to call him, invariably, "Basu".
From now on, I will call Aniket (Basu) as "Vasu"...
My son also was given the unpronounceable name: Sreenivas Shreenath. His Bengali friends (of both sexes) used to call him by his pet name: Sonu; and his American customers and vendors call him: "Sree"...with difficulty.
...Posted by Ishani
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