What's in a name?

What's in a name? That which we call a rose.

- William Shakespeare

Old Billy had got it right, or nearly so. For if he were in the 21st century, we would be calling him Bill or Billy, or Will, or, if I had my way, 'Lewdinsky'. But he isn't there with us and all that remains are his precious pearls of wisdom.

But going further back, into our very own myths, we discover that we had it right all along! Heck, most of our heroes and heroines of the Puranas, had not just one or two names. They had about five or six. Some even had, say a hundred.

Let's take our hero Arjuna for example. If translated into English, Arjuna means white. But our dashing hero, who at any point of time could slice you a piece of salami using his expert archery skills went by many other names. All a part of the strategy, I say. The guy had 40 wives! Anyway, he also went by the aliases of Partha, Vijaya, Jishnu, Savyasachi etc.

What about the heroine? Draupadi, as you must have read had a few other names as well. She was also called Panchali and Krsna.

The strong man of the group, Bhima also went by many names including Vrikodara, Bhimasena, etc. So did Yudhishtira. He was also called Dharmaraja for his intense righteousness.

But then again, all these are old, right? All these are done, right? Fret not. We have Ace, conman, Helen and Doc among many others to give you company!

But hey, what's the ace up your sleeve?