Who gave me the title?

I have jumped the gun.

No one has yet offered me any title. If anyone now approached me and asked me for my permission for them to confer a title on me, I would ask them to first fill up a nicely formatted questionnaire – Who are they? What is the exact title? Is the title going to be registered with the appropriate authorities of the Government of India? Are they certified “Title givers”? What is the authenticity of their certifiers? Will there be TV coverage in prime time of the investiture ceremony? And, on and on.

The reason for my caution on this score is obvious. I do not want, about nearly a century hence, anyone to pose a RTI question on my title and draw a blank. This is what has happened to M K Gandhi – a news item carried by all the newspapers. My first reaction is, into what depth of silliness are we going to descend?

Who gave the “Chacha” title to Nehru, “Arignar” to Annadurai, “Mahaperiaval” to the prior head of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, “Periar” to E V Ramaswamy, “Baba” to Ramdev, at least one of the two “Sri”s to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar? Neither Jayalalithaa nor Indira Gandhi is my mother. Then, whence their titles Amma and Annai, respectively? What is the provenance of the putative thousand names of Lord Mahavishnu or Goddess Lalitha?

I appreciate that a school girl asked this question, driven by curiosity. But it is truly sad that she was not told, even as an RTI request has been filed, that beyond names officially given there is a tradition of evoking sentiments through popular, vis-à-vis official, titles. Indeed these unofficial titles last far longer than the official ones. It is more often Alexander the Great than his full name with a long train of official titles.

The US has a set of Founding Fathers. Who are they and who gave them the title are questions that would invite ridicule. There is no official list of Founding Fathers (Just to think: Had there been such a list, there would have been the inevitable question, through the Freedom of Information, “Who are our Founding Mothers?” There is, of course, an organization titled Daughters of America!)

But, given that we have descended to this level of stupidity, I do not want any controversy about my name after I am dead.

I am RAGHURAM EKAMBARAM, no titles. If you desire to give me a title, please establish your credentials first. Thanks.

Raghuram Ekambaram