Pappu in'Pappu'lar culture

I have fallen in bad times. Instead of churning out intellectual, useful articles I am now made to write an article on, of all things, Pappu! What can be worse to my intellectual abilities than a write on Pappu! Anyway so let me start filling some space here. I have been a model of humiliation, insults and ridicule thanks to a 'pet name' kept by my folks. Since my childhood they have called me 'Pappu'. Everytime I come from school, my mum would beam her 32 and say, 'Pappu! how was your day my dear! Blah blah blah'. I have saved some more ridicule by transalating her words from Hindi to English. Anyway now it so happened that I find that Pappu is now a Happening word! Out of the blue, I am now envied because people call me pappu (I believe now out of affection). Imagine this, I am walking on the road and my friend calls me, "Hey pappu!' and I turn around to see how many giggles it has generated. Whoa! People in fact think its cool. Nice:) nice nice.

I am now trying to trace the origins of this change in attitude towards Pappu. Search for Pappu in google and you will see all dirty jokes starting like this, 'Pappu ne ek ladki se kaha...'. And its a dirty joke! I have not shown the full text of the joke here because then you guys will visit my blog only to see the joke!. Now Pappu means someone who is stupid, dumb basically a loser. Now I seriously do not understand why my parents had to call me dumb and with affection at that. Anyone you don't like call him 'Pappu'. If you are angry at your boss and want to quench your self prestige by calling him dumb (which is a mild word in English compared to the indignitives we Indians are used to), call him Pappu. Pappu is a common name parents name their kid in Gujarat and in Up, Bihar. Now I was born in UP and raised in Bihar. Guess my parents saw Bihari parents affectionately calling their children Pappu and it might have appealed to my folks. For heaven's sake Mom and Dad, why didn't you research on the name? It would have saved me the effort to write this post.

Anyway, Now there was a song sung by Amitabh in a Cadbury Dairy Milk ad where he sings, 'Pappu pass ho gaya!' followed by chanting of the same by a chorus. Grrr...I was in high school when the ad was released and I was fuming! I was too young to file lawsuit for slander. Then came Pappu Yadav, a Member of Parliament in Bihar who was charged of killing a fellow politician. You should see him boldly caressing (is that the right word? Sorry I am inherently short of the right words as you can see) his moustache with his 'followers' and showing no signs of remorse for the crime he did. Great! Now Pappu is associated with crime also! Thankfully my high school being in Chennai, people did not follow much of politics, especially in Bihar and so I was spared of further ridicule.

In college, thankfully it was a good experience and I feel that is when my good times with Pappu started. My best friend used to call me Pappu. Sandy being popular in college, the name stuck on with many and many felt it was actually cool. Boy! for once! I was proud of my name :) yeah! And then this song 'Pappu cant dance saala...' from the movie 'Jaane tu..Ya jaane na' came and then I was banging my head, literally this time. It damned my name, my prestige and every God damn egoistic word one think of. 'Pappu cant dance saala' was hitting me where it hurt. Fact of the matter is I really cant dance. My body structure is not made for dance and subtle movements. God am a disgrace to fine body movements that Indians are usually good at. This song made me wonder if it was made for me knowing my fluctuating emotions with the name Pappu.

But then there is God I believe and he heard my prayers. This song was a super hit and everyone was chanting it. Yohooo! Pappu was now happening! Now people called me pappu more often than not much to my happiness. Joining Grad school in US was also good because people knew me as Pappu (I had once used the name 'Vivek a.k.a Pappu' in my Orkut profile). So landing here, everyone knew me more as Pappu than vivek. Boy! And so, Pappu sahi me pass ho gaya :) And Pappu CAN dance saala, cos I shook my legs in a party and yes, I can actually dance. Things are good! :) Thank you Mom, Thank you Dad. LOL!

PS : Right ok there ends my stupid post. Thanks you folks!