Namesakes

I had just exited from the blog of someone named Sahithya. Actually it kind of felt weird. Her description of herself, except of being 'Friends' fan, was exactly yours truly. If this were some stupid movie, I'd've been convinced by now that I have multiple personality disorder. Her poems and most of her posts on that page were almost me. Now I'm thinking of namesakes.

Wait. I'll have to start from the beginning.

Most you who were in Ajie ma'am's first class might remember how and why my mum gave me this name. Until I came to Chennai, I had never met someone with the same name. In fact for sometime, I was the only Sahithya in that gossipy little town. So I was rather arrogant that I was different from all the others; there were many rajalakshmis, naveenas, sripriyas, gomathis but never another Sahithya. When I was in my 7th std, I was first introduced to the internet by my uncle (now my husband). When he tried to get me an email ID on reddiff, the ID I wanted was not available. That was a big shock. Mama said that there would be so many Sahithyas around the world and I can't expect to be the only Sahithya. That day, I started hating whoever had my name, right from my neighbour's niece who was named after me to all the random Sahithya's I happened to see being listed when my cousin searched for my profile in FB. I was filled so much with hatred that I wanted to find out the organisers of Miss Chennai pageant and send them hate mails, day in and day out, because that year's Miss Chennai was also a Sahithya. Am I still like that? In a way, yes. But today was the first time in my 22 years in this planet that I smiled all the time, as I read the posts of a namesake. Perhaps, its because, she's a poet too and a book lover, a travel freak, a calvin maniac and a foodie; all that I am. Wow, this feels, weird as I first said.