I came across an article by Freny Maneckshaw and it caught my attention. I was looking at stuff that would have a corporate or leadership or management leaning. The title of this article drew me: it was called 'Renaming Nakusa'. I'd like to read a bit verbatim to you.
"Narayan Wagle welcomes us inside the dim central room of his mud and stone house where family members nestle in companionable ease with clucking hens as the rain lashes down. He calls out loudly for 'Naku' and then smiles awkwardly. Old habits die hard, for he has forgotten that the seven year old little daughter he has just addressed was re-christened Aishwarya a week ago."
"But what's in a name? Plenty, if you happen to carry the indignity of being labeled 'Nakusa' from your cradle, as this little girl and her elder cousin found. Meaning 'unwanted', the names of these two girls of Shankarwada, in Satara district, are a reflection if just how low in esteem the girl child is held in many parts of India."
"A further survey in the Satara district, carried out through the anganwadi workers, revealed that there were at least 222 girls up to the age of 16, with the same name in 5 blocks in that particular district. 222 girls with the name 'Nakusa', which means unwanted."
The article goes on to say how the health officer there, Mr. Pawar, began to change the concept. He tried to have a re-christening service for these girls and managed to have a day when a lot of them changed their names. These 2 girls, Aishwarya and Sunita (as the other girls called herself) got their names officially changed so that their school and college certificates would be in the new name and when they got married, she would not have the indignity of taking the old name forward.
Wow! Imagine having within your name the feeling that was associated with your birth; to carry with you every day. Every time somebody calls you by your name, you are reminded that you are an unwanted child.
Even as I was beginning to feel bad, thinking about unwanted people, I was wondering whether there were people around me, people who have different names but on whom I would place the name Nakusa; people who are unwanted around me. Are there people like that? By my attitude and actions, do I portray that kind of attitude showing that somebody is unwanted?
As I began to go down that road, I thought that happens so easily in our days, in our weeks, in our spheres of work because we are so focused, at least we think we are. We are so focused on doing our job, that anybody who doesn't contribute towards that particular job going forward, is an unwanted person around us. I wondered whether to those people, we were communicating that 'You may have a different name but your name around me is Nakusa.'
The girls have changed their names – Aishwarya, Sunita, but it's cosmetic. Her father calls out Naku and then smiles awkwardly realizing that that was no longer her name. That change is cosmetic; it's on the surface. But the change for Aishwarya must come from within. She should start believing that she is wanted, that she has a reason, a purpose in life.
I think that's where we can help. We can show people around us who may think that they are unwanted; they may look a little different, they may not have the qualification or the education or the sure way that we can speak, or dress differently. It could be that inside are Nakusa's trying to fit in, trying to take what was a cosmetic change and make it a life change. We can help. If we look through those kind of lenses at the people who work around us, maybe today we would be able to see Nakusas around; desperate people trying to change an image about themselves that the world has placed on them or their families or community.
Or maybe, friends, it could be that you are the someone who has that name and you've been trying hard to change things about you, to be accepted, to fit in, to be wanted. Maybe this morning you are lonely because you don't think that you fit in. loneliness is such an epidemic in our world today.
I read an article yesterday where a British medical doctor named Ishani Kar-Purkayastha shared a story about an interaction with Doris, an 82 year old hospital patient. "Two days before Christmas, Doris seemed healthy and ready for discharge. But for some reason, she kept complaining about inexplicable health issues. Yesterday it was the arm that was hurting, before that the hip. The truth is that Doris is an incredibly healthy 82 year old and we can't find anything wrong. I have no doubt that it will be the same today. Sure enough, the x-rays came back normal and Doris was told that she would have to go back home. Finally she sighed and said, "Doctor, can you give me a cure for loneliness?"
Sometimes we can be surrounded by people and yet feel so alone, unwanted. I was reading this book 'The On-Purpose Person' by Kevin McCarthy. There is a quote there by Spencer Johnson: "A purpose is more on-going and gives meaning to our lives. When people have a purpose in life, they enjoy everything they do more. People go on chasing goals to prove something that doesn't have to be proved: that they are already worthwhile."
You and I are worthwhile even before we do anything because God created us with a purpose and for us to only fulfil that purpose would be enough to give us that sense of worth. Maybe today for you on this call, it could just mean a shift; not to get doing things but just looking at yourself and saying, "If the Creator of the world, the Almighty God, made me for a purpose, then I just want to follow that purpose." Find that purpose; find the thing that comes alive in you and do it.
Or maybe today you need to look out for unwanted people around you; people that maybe you or office people have made them think they are unwanted. Maybe you need to change your attitude. But I believe we ought to do everything we can to make 'Nakusa' people around you feel that they are wanted and needed.
I pray that you would think that through.
God Bless Us All.
"Narayan Wagle welcomes us inside the dim central room of his mud and stone house where family members nestle in companionable ease with clucking hens as the rain lashes down. He calls out loudly for 'Naku' and then smiles awkwardly. Old habits die hard, for he has forgotten that the seven year old little daughter he has just addressed was re-christened Aishwarya a week ago."
"But what's in a name? Plenty, if you happen to carry the indignity of being labeled 'Nakusa' from your cradle, as this little girl and her elder cousin found. Meaning 'unwanted', the names of these two girls of Shankarwada, in Satara district, are a reflection if just how low in esteem the girl child is held in many parts of India."
"A further survey in the Satara district, carried out through the anganwadi workers, revealed that there were at least 222 girls up to the age of 16, with the same name in 5 blocks in that particular district. 222 girls with the name 'Nakusa', which means unwanted."
The article goes on to say how the health officer there, Mr. Pawar, began to change the concept. He tried to have a re-christening service for these girls and managed to have a day when a lot of them changed their names. These 2 girls, Aishwarya and Sunita (as the other girls called herself) got their names officially changed so that their school and college certificates would be in the new name and when they got married, she would not have the indignity of taking the old name forward.
Wow! Imagine having within your name the feeling that was associated with your birth; to carry with you every day. Every time somebody calls you by your name, you are reminded that you are an unwanted child.
Even as I was beginning to feel bad, thinking about unwanted people, I was wondering whether there were people around me, people who have different names but on whom I would place the name Nakusa; people who are unwanted around me. Are there people like that? By my attitude and actions, do I portray that kind of attitude showing that somebody is unwanted?
As I began to go down that road, I thought that happens so easily in our days, in our weeks, in our spheres of work because we are so focused, at least we think we are. We are so focused on doing our job, that anybody who doesn't contribute towards that particular job going forward, is an unwanted person around us. I wondered whether to those people, we were communicating that 'You may have a different name but your name around me is Nakusa.'
The girls have changed their names – Aishwarya, Sunita, but it's cosmetic. Her father calls out Naku and then smiles awkwardly realizing that that was no longer her name. That change is cosmetic; it's on the surface. But the change for Aishwarya must come from within. She should start believing that she is wanted, that she has a reason, a purpose in life.
I think that's where we can help. We can show people around us who may think that they are unwanted; they may look a little different, they may not have the qualification or the education or the sure way that we can speak, or dress differently. It could be that inside are Nakusa's trying to fit in, trying to take what was a cosmetic change and make it a life change. We can help. If we look through those kind of lenses at the people who work around us, maybe today we would be able to see Nakusas around; desperate people trying to change an image about themselves that the world has placed on them or their families or community.
Or maybe, friends, it could be that you are the someone who has that name and you've been trying hard to change things about you, to be accepted, to fit in, to be wanted. Maybe this morning you are lonely because you don't think that you fit in. loneliness is such an epidemic in our world today.
I read an article yesterday where a British medical doctor named Ishani Kar-Purkayastha shared a story about an interaction with Doris, an 82 year old hospital patient. "Two days before Christmas, Doris seemed healthy and ready for discharge. But for some reason, she kept complaining about inexplicable health issues. Yesterday it was the arm that was hurting, before that the hip. The truth is that Doris is an incredibly healthy 82 year old and we can't find anything wrong. I have no doubt that it will be the same today. Sure enough, the x-rays came back normal and Doris was told that she would have to go back home. Finally she sighed and said, "Doctor, can you give me a cure for loneliness?"
Sometimes we can be surrounded by people and yet feel so alone, unwanted. I was reading this book 'The On-Purpose Person' by Kevin McCarthy. There is a quote there by Spencer Johnson: "A purpose is more on-going and gives meaning to our lives. When people have a purpose in life, they enjoy everything they do more. People go on chasing goals to prove something that doesn't have to be proved: that they are already worthwhile."
You and I are worthwhile even before we do anything because God created us with a purpose and for us to only fulfil that purpose would be enough to give us that sense of worth. Maybe today for you on this call, it could just mean a shift; not to get doing things but just looking at yourself and saying, "If the Creator of the world, the Almighty God, made me for a purpose, then I just want to follow that purpose." Find that purpose; find the thing that comes alive in you and do it.
Or maybe today you need to look out for unwanted people around you; people that maybe you or office people have made them think they are unwanted. Maybe you need to change your attitude. But I believe we ought to do everything we can to make 'Nakusa' people around you feel that they are wanted and needed.
I pray that you would think that through.
God Bless Us All.
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