Story behind my Name-Anthony

An Ode to the Big B


What is the one thing that belongs exclusively to you but that you use very rarely is used mostly by others. Yes! It’s your name. Your identity, the one thing that identifies you.

My name is Anthony. I prefer to be called just that or sometimes Tony in short. Tony is to Anthony as Bill is to William.

I am often asked, if I am a catholic. Some presume I am. Even though I am not very religiously inclined to any sects, not that I am atheist though, I am not a Christian. Nor has my name Anthony got to do anything with any religion pertaining to any God. Well, if Amitabh Bachchan is not God ie. I heard that some people worship the Big B. So maybe, there is a religion there afterall.

I got named Anthony, after the Big B. I am living tribute to the Big B.

I am writing this post after I saw a limp Amitabh curled up into a semi-foetal position in his car( today's TOI). The photographer could have avoided that. It was so unlike the big B, but apparently the Big B was admitted to the Escorts in Delhi and later to Lilavati in Mumbai. For some abdominal problems, probably gastritis,’Just stomach problem caused by food poisoning’ says Dr Trehan of Escorts. Hope it is just that. Get well soon Amitabh.

Amitabh had much more impact roles with names such as Vijay or Jay than the role he played as Anthony, but somehow the name stuck and Anthony sounds more Amitabh than Jai, so as the story goes,’ when I was born It was destined that I would be named after Amitabh’ After all my father was such a fan of Amitabh’s. Or so, my Aunts thought.

Yes that is how I got my name. I grew up among Aunts and Uncles who couldn’t dare to tease my father who was elder and was known to have a temper. So they just started calling me Anthony and the name stuck, so when I got admitted into nursery school, it was the name that was chosen. And I don’t know if I would want any other name than Anthony.

But He did had the same hair cut and the swagger that Amitabh is famous for. But nobody could say it to his face, though I am sure he wouldn’t have mind. Why else did he collect those “Yeh hain Amitabh” audio tapes and who bought that LP of “Muqqadar ka sikandar”, "Sholay", "Zanjeer", "Zameer", "Silsila", and of course "Amar Akbar Anthony", with dialogues and everything.

Surprisingly My father never looked like Big B to me though. Maybe he has changed his style and gait by the time I was born and grew up. But I never saw him looking like Amitabh Bachchan. Oh! he is hansome, but not like Amitabh though. The reason why people think he looks like Amitabh was perhaps because of his height. In a place where the average height used to be 5.5 or 5.6( its increased though) my father’s 6 foot tall lean frame must make him look like Big B. And stories are that he was such a heart throb, something (sob sob) I didn’t inherit. Nevertheless, I was named Anthony as a tribute the One man who everyone at my home is crazy about. Oh! it also helped that My mom is just as tall as Jaya Badhuri, and that her name is Madhuri which is often confused with Badhuri, lol. People keep asking me if my Mom’s name is Madhuri or Badhuri.

I am also a great fan myself of Amitabh Bachchan, his swagger( a swagger that could whip Clint Eastwood's ass anyday), his Baritone voice and I am going to dedicate a blog to his name soon. The Man more than the Actor. People remember Actors for the part that they played, we remember Amitabh not for the roles he played but for the man himself, The Big B.( Shah Rukh Khan is trying that hard, The King). But as JaiArjun of jabberwocky, pointed out in a comment, 'his being everywhere-like God-is-omnipresent’ selling everything from Pen to Paint is a little too much to take for fans like me but then he must know what he is doing. “It is better to burn out than to fade away”, but his second comeback after almost fading out makes him even a bigger hero.

Get well soon.

## Do read the links to swagger and omnipresent.. very good reads..
I first picked up the thread at balancing life here, then followed it here, and here


## I had my dad's pic up. Then, I suddenly remembered his temper ;-)