Whats there in a (sur)name?

I don't remember I ever had to use Advanced Search Option of Google, untill this morning. And my key search phrase was "origin gangulys -saurabh".

Sorry Saurabh..but you being a "Ganguly" is hampering my "quest" on the "Origin of my...rather "our" forefathers. See my frustration when I see pages after pages dedicated to you..so I had to use "excluding Saurabh". Suddenly I have this curiosity about my great great grand fathers and where they came from, belong to etc...but so far even after 24 hrs after visiting many pages, forums, wikipedia, hindunet, genealogy,ancestry (the last two are asking for a fees to give me answer), still I have not come across to anything solid and search is still on.

Long time back I remember asking this same question to my "jethu" (father's elder brother, who is no more now). What he answered was that a small family of priests from a village in UP called Gangpur or something like that (may be near river Ganges) were brought by some
Bengal king as his "Raj-Purohits"..and thus the family tree of Ganguly started trying to wash off the sins of their king. Later on someone told me it was not UP, but a a village in Bengal itself near the present city of Bardhman. "Jethu" also used to mention me proudly that Gangulys are the superior among other 3 main Brahmins of Bengal mainly Mukherjee, Chaterjee and Banerjee and that's why you will find Gangulys rarely, compared to the other three.

So when I went and said to this my cousin LaluDa (son of my father's sister..and himself a Mukherjee) he not only twisted my ears and scolded me, but also said "Stupid it is the "Mukhopadhyay" who are the number one, see it means Mukhya (chief) Updahyay (teacher). Go and see in Bombay how many Mukherjees are there, starting with Hemanta and Hrishikesh" (thanks god Rani was yet not born then). I did not go back to my Jethu with this new found logic ever..but I am sure he must have had an answer for this too.

Personally I used to be fascinated with Chaterjee and Banerjee though. That somehow used to sound very "stylish" to me. Particularly in some hindi movie where the Barrister would be referred as Mr Chaterjee....Or the doctor doing some life saving operation on our hero is none but Mr. Banerjee.

I also used to wonder when Chattopadhyay is Chaterjee, Bandopadhyay is Banerjee, and Mukhopadyay is same as Mukherjee, why the hell Gangopadhyay is not Gangerjee...atleast it would have helped me in those days when my childhood friends used to tease me with Ganguly being very similar sounding to that phrase in hindi..... well if u don't know it better not know it.

Whatever it is...my surname has caused me lot of worries right from my childhood. First of all the sheer length and tongue twisting...made it more challenging when first name is not simple as Deb or Raj. Imagine a 4 or 5 year old saying and writing his name as "Indranil Gangopadhyay". Later when asked my dad why you did not keep it simple as Ganguly, he mentioned "because of a certain school clerk who decided that his matric certificate should mention "Gangopadhyay" instead of "Ganguly" and since that day of 1955..all our official surname became this big one, until 2004 when I decided that Ritwik will be Ganguly and not Gangopadhyay. I am sure later when he reads this blogpost he is going to thank me!

Many of my non-bong friends and all used to think it is "gang-upadhyay" and used to write it like that only. Ofcourse pronouncing itself was challenging too. As Saurabh was till too young for national cricket team and Kishore Kumar rarely used to mention he is Ganguly....people (or atleast my school friends of those small towns in MP) hardly knew about it....and used to think what an odd last name he has got. There hardly used to be any Bengali population, but it all changed when we moved to Raipur. Thanks to Railways and other industries it was well populated with NRBs (Non Residential Bengalis). So imagine my happiness when in my class itself I found Samir Ganguly and of course lots of Roys, Mukjerjees, Sens and Pals!

Later on things also started improving with Rupa Ganguly in Mahabharat. Finally some Ganguly was in limelight and making it big in non bong area. Also by that time because of sheer age the knowledge base of my friend circle had increased and they started realizing Kishore Kumar, Ashok Kumar are all Gangulys too. And ofcourse things changed for ever when Dada aka Prince of Calcutta came in. But by that time I had already stopped thinking about my surname and all. So I am sure that small Ganguly kid is no more passing through the days adjusting with his surname in that small town in MP like I did.

Well it had affected me too..Now years after and miles away still sometimes when I order for a carryout dinner from an Indian restaurant and spell my last name (its in habit now), and the other side replies "Oh you don't have to spell..we know Ganguly"...it feels good!