Gun-na-aawat: The Story behind the name – A funny tale!



It seems interesting to know how people get different names, and more interestingly different and amazing surnames. Let me list you some suMr Chaurasiya interesting surnames that I have come across till now. Daruwala, Pipewala, Paaniwala these are some family names that are picked after the occupation that the family carries. And there are many more which we cannot even take an account of.

Now, many people ask me about my surname. Where are you from-Rajasthan? This is the most common questions that people ask me when I am introduced to them for the first time. Hear this story, where finally I spoke this out and unfolded the story behind my family name.

29th November’ 2011
Scene: New Delhi Railway Station, 4:30pm the train departs.
It’s Mumbai Rajdhani Express, I had just traveled my one of the longest train journey from my second home Guwahati to the country’s capital New delhi, already frustrated about long train journey, yet to set a record of actually the longest journey by train ever taken by me, would be completing ~  44 hours of train travel. But who would ever know that you will meet somebody called Mr Chaurasiya from Chhattisgarh, who would compel you to say the unfold story of my clan from Rajasthan. Stay back and enjoy the conversation to follow:

5:05pm: The evening snacks were served, Mr Chaurasiya is sitting just opposite to my upper seat; let me give a brief description about him.
Age: 50-55, but still feels that he is in his early 30’s and is wearing a spotted white shirt and a funky Levis jeans, I feel he is too cool to wear such kind of cloth. Never mind, but the coolness doesn’t stop here; he is regular to chew Tulsi (a branded guthka product) and another tobacco product which makes his smile a scene to stop and watch.

Mr Chaurasiya: (smiling at me): “Where are you coming from?”

Mr Gunawat: “Guwahati”,I said promptly!

Mr Chaurasiya: “What do you study there?”

Mr Gunawat: “I am doing my B.Tech from IIT Guwahati”.

Mr Chaurasiya: “Oh, IIT, my son is also in IIT”! He said as if it wasn’t a big deal.

Mr Gunawat: “Where is he?”

Mr Chaurasiya: “He is in Kanpur, has Metallurgy as his stream. He was getting Computers at Guwahati, but he did not want Guwahati and so joined in Kanpur.

Mr Gunawat: (thinking): CSE (Computer Science) finishes within thousand, and even if his son got a rank, why the hell he’ll go for Metallurgy at Kanpur? I understood that this Mr Chaurasiya is making fool out of me, but I was not the camel who would come under his hill (relate it to a Hindi idiom). So it was my turn now.

Mr Chaurasiya: “I did not get your name, what is it?”

Mr Gunawat: “Rajeev Gunawat”

Mr Chaurasiya: “Kounawat?”

Mr Gunawat: “Gunawat!, I said with disgust. How can somebody play with my family name!

Mr Chaurasiya: “Runawat”?

Mr Gunawat: “Goou-naa-wat”, emphasizing on the pronunciation this time.

Mr Chaurasiya: “Okay Gunawat! But what kind of a surname is it, are you Rajput”.

Mr Gunawat: “Yes, I said, but there is a long funny tail behind this”

Mr Chaurasiya: “I have all the time, go on”.

Mr Gunawat: “So, Once upon a time, in the state of Rajputana…”!

To be continued…

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