"A man sees in his son the dreams he dreamed for himself" - Lahsiv Abbus

My Dear friends Prabir & Shraddha, who recently had a son (announced previously in Breaking News) have finally decided on a name for him. Actually Prabir did all the deciding.

Against family and in-law objections he has zeroed in on Kabir.

I have known him (my friend that is not the baby..ha ha P.J) since 1984 and if there is something I’ve learnt in that time it is this.
Prabir does nothing without thinking things through. And he has always thought of himself as a latter day messiah cum eccentric.
A modern Rajneesh Osho if you may.

So when he choose Kabir as his son’s name there was no surprise for me. Just look how many cultural, sociological, religious, spiritual, etc etc boxes it manages to tick along the way. So in his mind there cannot be a name which is more generic than KABIR and which can win any arguments be it social, cultural.....

Okay lets do this the correct way.

Kabir lived perhaps during 1398-1448 (Historical : Tick). He is thought to have lived longer than 100 years. (Longevity: Tick)
His birth and death are surrounded by legends (Suspense: Tick). He was allegedly born to a Hindu (Hindu: Tick) virgin woman (Mother Mary: Tick)after she visited a temple. He was abandoned and grew up in a Muslim (Islam: Tick) weaver family(Low Caste: Tick), but some say he was really son of a Brahmin (High Caste: Tick) widow (Widow’s right: Tick) who was adopted by a childless couple(Adoption: Tick).

After living for 114 years (Urine Therapy: Tick) he decided to give up his life (Voluntary Retirement: Tick). When he died, his Hindu and Muslim followers started fighting about the last rites(Popularity: Tick). The legend (Legendary: Tick) is that when they lifted the cloth covering his body, they found flowers instead (Mystery: Tick). The Muslim followers buried their half and the Hindu cremated their half. In Maghar, his tomb and samadhi still stand side by side (Religious Coexistence: Tick).

He is also believed to be a contemporary of Guru Nanak (Sikhism: Tick) and the Sikh’s hold him in as high esteem as the other 10 gurus.

Kabir is also believed to have begun (Pioneer: Tick) the Bhakti Movement along with other saints. In the fifteenth century, Benaras (Cultural : Tick) was the seat of Brahmin orthodoxy and their learning center (Educational : Tick). Brahmins had a strong hold on all the spheres of life in this city. Thus Kabir belonging to a low caste had to go through immense hardships (Perseverance: Tick) to preach his idealogy (Demagogue: Tick). Kabir and his followers would gather at one place in the city and meditate(Spiritual : Tick). Brahmins ridiculed him for preaching to prostitutes (Non-Judgemental: Tick) and other low castes (Equality: Tick). Kabir satirically (Witty: Tick) denounced Brahmins and thus won hearts of people around him (Populist: Tick). Kabir through his couplets not only reformed (Reformist: Tick) the mindset of common villagers (Rural : Tick) and low caste people but give them self confidence (Enabler: Tick) to question (Independence: Tick) Brahmins. From the writings (Novelist: Tick) of Kabir it is clear that he believed in the yogic conception (Yoga : Tick) that all truth is experimental, i.e. to be realized within the body with the aid of psycho-physical practices(Freudian : Tick), concentration, control of breathing(Art of Living: Tick) and thus making the body incorruptible (Lofty Goals: Tick) and the yogis immortal (Delusional : Tick).
Kabir was also a firm advocate of ahimsa (Gandhi: Tick)

So can you find a more referenced or more appropriate name for someone whose father himself is a self styled acetic messiah.

Prabir’s father in law (who incidentally is named Kedar) apparently had a lot of long intellectual sounding names prepared but was very cleverly fooled into submission by Prabir after being told that the sound “K” was from his name Kedar and “bir” from Prabir.

Hence Ka-Bir. The poor old man has no idea how Punk’d he’s been.

If any of you’ve watched Gosford Park, a brilliant film by Robert Altman, there is a character in it called Constance, the Countess of Trentham. Played incisively by Dame Maggie Smith, she is an old dowager countess who depends on her nephew for an allowance but is so critical and catty that she manages to say and do the nastiest things without it sounding bad. She manages to do and say just what she wants but is never ‘blamed’ for it. Her words are scathingly critical of everything from

Class: “Why did Freddie have to bring his common wife here. Couldn’t he have come alone”,

Money; “So clever of Mabel to travel light. Why must one wear a different gown every evening”,
Profession; “It must be so difficult no, when a film just, you know, flops like that”

Nationality; “I guess we will have to be subjected to 1 more day of the American man shouting down the telephone”

Country; “Just now when I came down the stairs there was so much noise I thought I have been transported to a bar in Marseilles”

Musicians; “Don’t, don’t, please don’t clap. It will only encourage him”

The reason I mention this is because my dear friend is an exact copy of Countess Trentham, with maybe a little bit of Niles Crane from Frasier

However if you’d ask him, he’d say that he is a mix between Archbishop Tutu, Emperor Nero & Chairman Den Xiao Ping.

Why these people??? well… you will have to ask him that yourself.

By the way here in the middle east the fathers are known by the names of the son with Abu (father) as a prefix.

So I guess, Salaam Aalaikum Abu Kabir

Prabir & Shraddha: We would like pics of the little devil soon.

The Child indeed is the father of Man