WHAT’S IN A NAME? (WHY SHAKESPEAR WAS WRONG!)

"What's in a name?" Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet made this question famous. They fell in love before learning they bear the names of rival families. Romeo is a Montague and Juliet a Capulet. Willing to deny name before love, Juliet cries out, "Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou, Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name. Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I'll no longer be a Capulet." A few lines later, Juliet asks, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet."

If only Shakespeare had analyzed!

I bring to you this list of names of most eminent personalities in their chosen field of specialization.

Andre Aggasi, Muthiah Muralitharan, Leonix Lewis, Bill Clinton, Woodrow Wilson, D. Eisenhower, Steven Spielberg, Sharon Stone, Benazir Bhutto, Amitabh Bachchan, Sushmita Sen, J. Jayalalitha, Shekhar Suman, Sushma Swaraj, Ravi Shastri, Rajdeep Sardesai, etc, etc.

Ever wondered what Sylvester Stallone has that other stars of Hollywood don't have? Ever wondered why Marilyn Monroe is still remembered for her beauty even though she died long ago at a very young age? Look at Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosale! Who would have imagined that an average actor like Ronald Reagan would make it to the Presidency of US? Can you imagine a short and frail person like Charlie Chaplin making it big on Silver Screen today? Why did Sachin Tendulkar become such a sensation when it is a known fact (acknowledged by his coach Achrekar) that Vinod Kambli was a much better batsman than him? Whoever reads fiction novels will tell you that there are better novelists than Sydney Sheldon - but he is the most popular of his fraternity! Why does everyone with out national boundaries like cartoon characters - Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse?

These names do suggest that there is something more than meets the eye. If you have carefully noticed - all the names above have two distinct characteristics:

1) Either the initials of their name are same. (Eg. Pablo Picasso, Zinedine Zidane)

2) Or The initials of their name have consecutive alphabets. (Eg. Venus Williams, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee)

Well here is a thought I would like to put across.

People having names with the above mentioned characteristics always and always achieve success in their life. They just cannot fail. Look around - see and observe for yourself. Your friends, relatives - anyone and everyone with such names will be successful in their lives.

This is not to say that only people with consecutive initials or same initials in their name succeed. People having names with inverse alphabet initials also make it big in their life. Prominent examples are Satyajit Ray, Nelson Mendela, Martin Luther King, and many more. These people are generally path breakers or trend setters!

So what do people like us do - now that we don’t have such a name? Well yours’ truly cannot change his name to Mantosh Malik or Mantosh Malhotra. So I will do the next best thing, which is very much in my control. I will ensure that my kids have names like Raj Singh or Shagun Singh!

Let me conclude by summarizing thus -

 Success is not ensured only by a Name - BUT...

 A right Name shall always ensure your Success.

With all due respects to Mr. William Shakespeare - I feel he got it wrong just this once. There is SOMETHING special in the name you have. The evidence as we see is - OVERWHELMING.

Think about it.

Mantosh Singh..

28^th Jan 2003’