BY PIYALI SARKAR 

 

 

WE LIVE in a society where name mockery is common. I recall being the fulcrum of laughter for my name. I once asked my father to change my name and surname. I didn’t realise my ask was putting my identity at stake. Over time, I accepted the uniqueness of my name, and only literacy would dig deep into its cultural significance and meaning. After all, my name is my identity, and succumbing to superficial aspects wasn’t a choice for me anymore. Today, I witnessed an act of idiocy by a young lad over a post on one of the public forums. This Gen Z is beyond sympathy. Pitying his mental state, I observed how visibility ruled his mind to an extent where he eroded his moral character and sense of proper judgement. A simple post about by some individual and my comment wishing him luck for his search somehow triggered this lad’s ego going unnoticed among the 92K followers of that forum. Today, social media is all about visibility. Whether on any professional platform or at leisure, it is about how well you can occupy people’s minds by grabbing their attention.

 

However, while attracting eyeballs, what one forgets is ‘the way’ you are trying to seek their attention. This fellow picked up to joke about my name to grab some attention from other commenters, engaging in an irrelevant and unnecessary act. I remember an incident when I got chased by two stray dogs. A middle-aged man rescued me from the situation that day and his piece of advice was- “Every time you see such behaviour, stop, and take a step back, keep your mind calm, and think why it is happening. Your intention wasn’t to harm them. However, their past experience about similar incidents or actions had cost their trust in people.” The advice, even today, hits me to a different degree because we humans have the same approach. When he commented on my name, I didn’t even have the urge to reply in the first place. Nevertheless, making baseless, derogatory comments about someone’s name to earn some attention and a lack of social etiquette wasn’t something to be encouraged on a public forum. Today’s incident is a reminder of how this Gen Z perceives their lives.

 

If you analyse the entire episode, it was absolutely nothing but a desire to seek validation for his attention-seeking act. I politely empathised and suggested him to seek help from counselors for self-reflection. In the long run, masking his own insecurities and perceived inadequacies won’t land him at a destination he thinks of. However, I knew how triggered he would be because tolerating truths is a hard nut to crack, and a direct one is more harmful than we think. Such behaviours stem from various factors, including a lack of positive attention, inadequate feelings, or a desire to stand out in social situations. The only solution is to surround yourself with people who encourage positive interactions that help foster healthier communication. In the end, in the chain of words, let mockery find no place, our names, our essence, weave the story of grace.