NAAMKARAN

In Hindus, the traditional ceremony of naming the baby is known as Naamkaran.

After 45 days of my birth on the day of Naamkaran ceremony, pandit ji gave two alphabets D and H by which my name was to be decided. My parents named me “Heena” which means Mehendi. But in couple of days after consulting with other friends and relatives they decided to change my name because they thought Heena is not a Hindu name. So they named me “Himanshi”. This lovely and unique name was thought by my father. “Himanshi” means part of Himalaya or snow. In Sanskrit another meaning of Himanshi is Godess Parvati.

Namkaran was not over yet. My brother Dhiraj who is one and half years elder to me continued the tradition. He gave me one more name. The story behind receiving a new name from my brother is that my parents used to teach me that I should call my brother “Bhaiya”(means elder brother). They used to repeat the word Bhaiya by pointing towards him. But I guess I never understood. But somebody did; my brother. Because of looping of the word again and again it got stuck in my brothers’ head and he started calling me “Bhaiya”. And now I had one more name “Bhaiya”. Even aunty living in our neighbourhood used to call my mom by shouting “Bhaiyas mother!!!” which sounded weird and funny. :)