Surviving as a storyteller with the 21st century’s most infamous name!
Though Shakespeare posed the question ‘What’s in a name?’ in the context of a romantic rendezvous between two star-crossed lovers, I’ve found the phrase to aptly capture my own existential crisis as well.
In what now seems like a distant past, a college friend on Facebook tagged me in a video posted by the World Health Organization (WHO). With curiosity, I watched as the China-borne virus was officially named Covid-19. It wasn’t the striking similarity in spelling to my name that caught my attention; rather, it was the nearly identical enunciation of every syllable. I brushed it off, assuming the mention of the infamous name would be confined to a single country and global news headlines.
I was proven wrong in a matter of weeks. I transitioned from having an incredibly uncommon name to one that was now being uttered by people from all walks of life. ‘Kovid,’ which means ‘scholar’ in Hindi, finds its origins in the Hanuman Chalisa. Without a quick Google search, however, the name can be easily mistaken as a misspelled version of the dreaded pandemic.
Nearly two decades ago (well before the start of my filmy adventures), I visited an astrologer in Jaipur with my mom and uncle. As the clairvoyant flipped through the pages of my janam-kundali, he predicted my name would gain recognition worldwide. Excited, I embarked upon my professional endeavors, producing page after page of scripted content. Little did I know I was experiencing a series of ‘be careful what you wish for’ moments. The astrologer had missed mentioning this international recognition would come for the wrong reasons!
I’m often asked how it feels to be named after the pandemic, despite having 32 years on my now aforementioned namesake. I often joke things happened the other way around. Perhaps a member of the WHO liked one of my books and found it apt to name the 21st century’s game-changer out of reverence to my works. While chatting with fellow film enthusiasts, I clarify I’m the lucky ‘Kovid,’ unlike the unlucky pandemic ‘Covid.’ Much like the K-soaps I grew up watching, having the ‘K’ as the first letter gives me an astrological upswing, or so I like to think.
A storyteller’s identity certainly takes a turn while sharing a name with one of the internet’s most searched words. I’ve encountered folks who have stumbled across my Wikipedia page, only to be alerted by the platform with ‘This article refers to Kovid Gupta, a living person. For the pandemic, see Covid-19.’ Not to mention the many e-mails and text messages I receive with my name misspelt, courtesy the often used autocorrect.
My well-wishers have advised me to change my name or use a pseudonym for future works. While not dismissing the thought of embracing a nom de plume entirely, I’ve decided otherwise. Yahoo News published an engaging piece on those of us grappling with sharing our names with the pandemic. In my chats with their reporter, I pondered upon how my generation may be one of the last to have this name, and I may be one of the last Kovids for the foreseeable future of mankind. The data says it all; how many people name their children malaria, polio, or influenza today?
A realization that otherwise may have caused remorse got me thinking. Does the so-called bizarreness of my name provide a competitive edge over my filmy brethren?
The use of a pseudonym necessitates an identity shift for the storyteller. Joann Rowling had to rechristen herself as J.K. Rowling at the insistence of publishers who did not want young boys to learn that a woman had written Harry Potter and Philosopher’s Stone. In retrospect, did this really create such a big dent in the salability of the book, or was it destined to go down in history regardless?
The subject is indeed debatable. While a book shouldn’t be judged by its cover, what happens when that very book is judged by the name of its author? Would this be such a bad thing after all? As they say, there is no such thing as bad publicity.
Only time will tell which entity emerges stronger in the 21st century: Covid-19 or Kovid Gupta. I will surely be watching where the sun sets on this tussle of nomenclature!
