Poetry

Dear Jeeya ...

by SANMEET KAUR

 

Dear Jeeya:

 

We are born unto our name.

This I believe.

Two days after you were born, five of us - your Daada ji, Daadi ji, Papa, me and tiny you in my arms gathered in our Babaji's room to do ardaas and kada parshaad. Guru Granth Sahib graced us with the alphabet ‘Jaja,' - ‘J'!

Since we hadn't any fantastic suggestions on hand we decided to defer finalizing your name.

Your Daadi-ma suggested we pick a name from gurbani and your Pa and I liked the idea very much. So, when we returned to our room we took out the nitnem gutka and sat facing each other on the bed as you lay between us. I began to recite Jaap Sahib loudly, pausing and stressing on all the words beginning with ‘J.'

Almost at the end of Jaap Sahib, the 150th paudi is:

Bhagvati chhand. Tav Parsad.

Ki zahir zahoor hain. Ki haazir hazoor hain.

Hamesul salaam Hain. Samastal kalaam hain //150//

 

Zahir - the Omnipresent!

May He always be apparent in you.

We both took to the name right away. Zahir Kaur was lovely, just like you.

Now your Naana-papa had given us a book of Sikh names when you were still in my tummy. As you know, no preparation can be too much where you are concerned, in his opinion. But there wasn't anything we liked in it.

To make our lives easier, Papa and I, we asked everyone in the family - Daada, Daadi, Naana, Naani, Chetan Chaacha, Preet Maama and Aman Maama to give us three names they liked on order of preference.

I remember Chetan's first choice was Jannat, Naana-papa's Jeevna, Daada-papa thought Jeeya was nice but too short, so Jiyajot Kaur. However, Pa and I wanted to keep in simple, so the ‘jot' in Jeeyajot was out.

Daadi-ma didn't like Zahir. She thought it would be really tough for the non-Sikhs to pronounce. Most of the family agreed with Daadi-ma on this. Keep in mind that we were making Lorraine Naana pronounce all the names as we went through them. She really killed ‘Zahir‘.

Preet Maama was the only one who liked Zahir Kaur as much as we did. Which was a good thing because his list had the incredibly sweet Jind Kaur but also Jugat and Zorawar (‘cause I was so sure we were having a boy before you ‘swooshed and slumped' out of my tummy) and Bhavani and Bhagauti, (before we were mercifully graced with the alphabet ‘J').

Incredibly, the second name on everybody's list was Jeeya, Naani's first choice.

Finally the toss up was between Jeeya and Zahir.

I remember (Nicket) Bhooji-naani telling me she preferred Jeeya. "It's so full of love and so mitha, mitha, with some masti. You guys are too serious as it is. Now you'll name her Zahir, that's a heavy name for a kid ..."

I guess she didn't expect you to grow up much. Just like her brother, chip off the same block.

In the face of Daadi's strong opposition to Zahir, and her growing affinity for Jeeya, "...Even when her husband calls her, he'll say Jeeya - sweetheart. It's so nice..." and the fact that Lorraine Naana could not wrap her tongue around Zahir, "not even to save my life," as she put it, we were veering towards Jeeya.

Finally what sealed the deal for Jeeya were two lines Naani-ma recited to me on the phone:

Sunn sakhi, pee main jeeyo basey, Jee main basey ki peeyo.

Jeeyo, peeyo bhoojhe nahin, Ghat main jeeyo ki peeyo.

 

So joyous, so alive was her tone.

So sweet, so loving this gurbani.

I knew at once on my heart, if there was any ever one thing I could ask for, I would ask for this. For you, for me, for Pa, for all those I loved.

If there was any one thing your Pa and I would like you to live up to, it is your name and these two lines you were named after. So, it was this grace that we asked for you in the ardaas when you took on the name of Jeeya Kaur:

"May You reside in Jeeya's heart and she in Yours so that she never realizes the difference between You and her. In a split second You become apparent in her and she in you, so that we can never know her from You."

He is Zahir in you.

You are His Jeeyo.

Beloved to One

And all.

 

Love,

Mama.

 

November 16, 2009

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