DESI SPOTTING: Name that elephant!

The Houston Zoo has a new, 384-pound baby elephant, and it's looking to name him (via Sam Kannappan, who appropriately enough calls the contest a Namkaran). Go to the zoo's website and place your vote for one of five names, including 2 Indian names:

• Colossus
• Guiness
• Sundar
• Janu
• Mac

The deadline is Friday, November 10.

You'll notice on the website that they've given a little explanation/translation for each name, and for Sundar and Janu it says "In Hindu/India, it means..." as if to suggest that Hindu is a language. Whoops.

But hopefully nomenclatural (?) justice will prevail and that little Indian elephant will receive a good Indian name.

They say this is the largest baby elephant birth on record. Maybe they'll eventually take it a step further and do like Guruvayur temple, in Kerala, which is to let you get blessed by the elephant. Elephant's trunk caressing the crown of your head - one of the world's top 5 sensations.

Comments

[Sree Sreenivasan]

Arun: Thanks for this post. Am going to vote for one of the Indian names.

Meanwhile, you say: "Elephant's trunk caressing the crown of your head - one of the world's top 5 sensations." Can you please tell us the other four immediately?

[Arun Venugopal]

Sree,
That's a REALLY good question. We could take this back-channel. But here's my official, public list:

- Job well done: love that feeling!
- Respecting my elders: better than Gatorade
- Chewing my tongue - like meat, but without the high price
- elephant trunk on my toe: use peanut butter

[siddhartha]

We're on the case!
http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/003922.html

[chhavi]

Houston Zoo web content developers need to see this: http://www.spreadshirt.com/shop.php?op=article&article_id=764406#top

[Jaya Kamlani]

Sree,

I think I have a good name for the baby elephant: GANESH or GANESHA.
Take your pick.

We pray to Lord Ganesha - the God with the elephant head - to bring us good luck. Perhaps, this baby elephant called "Ganesh" is going to bring good luck and peace in this world.

On another note, do you know the Baby Elephant Walk dance? I do. I can show it to you at the next SAJA convention. You will love it. It goes along with the cha-cha-cha dance, and it is stylish too, like the old world charm.

-- Jaya Kamlani