What's in a name?

There are 3 interesting aspects about this piece:

• Firstly, I wrote this when I was pissed off at not being called only with my first name. During college days, there were 2 other Kartik's but I was never called only as Kartik. Thankfully, Pramod came up the KRao moniker and needless to say I loved my unique id ;-).
• Secondly, the story about the parents meeting is nearly true albeit a bit dramatized
• Last but not the least, this is an incomplete piece. Of course, I can't recall what I intended to write and so cannot complete it. 

Nevertheless, enjoy it.

As the title suggests, the story is about a name. Yes, my name - Vaibhav. Vaibhav and only Vaibhav. The story had its seeds sown way back in time. Before India gained independence; before the magic apple fell on Newton; and in fact, even before the real version of Jurrasic Park was screening. Anyways, since I don't know any of it, I will just rewind 25 years back in time and narrate from there.

My abridged version of the story starts when a guy called Vishal imagined. Imagined that a girl called Vandana was waving at him, when in fact she was waving at her friend. Vishal excitedly waved back and caught Vandana's attention. They looked at each other, eye to eye. And then with an earsplitting sound to announce resumption of its royal sojourn, the DTC bus departed from the bus stop. It was not love at first sight, but neither was it some ignorable event.

The eye contact moved to the acquaintance stage before transforming into courtship. As time moved on, they realized they were compatible with each other. Since both of them were from middle class families, their parents were co-operative. The villain, unexpectedly, was the astrologer. The guy that Vandana's father went to said the horoscopes matched. However, the person Vishal's father consulted said the two were incompatible. The jerk had almost got me killed. Having got a positive and a negative advice, Vishal's father went in for a second opinion - as if they were considering whether or not to undergo an operation (of course, the event under consideration would lead to one). The third umpire gave the verdict in favour of the children. And soon Vishal and Vandana tied the knot.

They shifted to a one bed room apartment, somewhere in Karol Bagh. Since both of them were earning, their combined monthly income was a handsome Rs. 650/-. They would comfortably pay the rent for their one bed room flat and afford an occasional splurge at some restaurant and a weekend movie. It could have been a "happily ever after" ending of a story and nothing to write much about, but for their desire. The desire to have kids and experience all those surreal emotions that can be best understood by watching a Hindi movie. Well some time later, Vandana went into labour and the hero was born. Yes, you are right, that's me. I don't know whether my name was pre-decided or not, but the end result was that I was christened Vaibhav. So from "V2", our family became "V3".