What’s in a surname? Traits, says west Uttar Pradesh
Youths in UP take pride in being called ‘bhoot’, ‘tota’, ‘bichhoo’
By : amita verma
Update: 2015-06-21 03:25 GMT
Lucknow: In western UP, habits often turn into surnames and though some of them may sound downright ridiculous, the new generations are in no mood to shed them. Known as baunk in the local parlance, these surnames denote the habits of the family members. Brijraj Tomar ‘Bhoot’ of Bijraul village in Meerut belongs to the well-known ‘Bhoot’ clan and he is certainly not ashamed of it.
“One of my forefathers was very tall and had a lot of body hair. Once he was working in the fields when some hay got stuck in his hair. While returning home, some women saw him, got scared and started shouting ‘Bhoot, bhoot’. Since then he was given the name ‘Bhoot’ and the family stuck to this name,” he explained. Mr Brijraj said that his father told him that he could drop ‘Bhoot’ from his name if he wanted.
“I was appearing for high school and was given this option. I thought over it and then decided to retain it. After all it gives me a family identity,” he says. In Bamnaiuli village, a family has a surname ‘Tota’ that stuck to them after one of their forefathers was known to be a chatterbox. “He was called ‘Tota’ by the villagers and the name stuck on the family. Today, we are actually proud of this,” said Hemant Kumar Tota.
Anjali Tomar Bichhoo said that her great grandfather, Data Ram, was a frail man, but had a very sharp brain. “He had the knack of turning things around without anyone else knowing about his plans. People started calling him ‘Bichhoo’ because of his silent operations and the name became our ‘baunk’,” she said adding 15 families in the adjoining villages continue to use the ‘Bichhoo’ as their surname.
Anjali, who is trying to seek admission in Delhi for her graduation course, said she has no intentions of dropping her ‘baunk’. “I know it may be a joke in Delhi, but back home, it earns me respect the moment I say I belong to the Bichhoo clan and I am willing to face sneers in my college, but family issues are more important for me,” she says.
According to a local politician, who doesn’t want to be named, the ‘baunk’ tradition may have started because over 84 villages in the region have a large population of Tomar community and this was, perhaps, a way of identifying particular families.