17. The Handle Story of @bhuto
The etymology is fairly simple. It's a diminutive of bhut/bhoot, the Bengali (as well as Hindi) word for a ghost. Maybe because I am a fairly small person though there's nothing ghostly about me. Or so I think.
As a pet name[1] it's a fairly common one in eastern India and I think I have deprived quite a few people who joined Social Media later than me by taking it up across most sites. My favourite uncle used to call me that. So, he would address his letters to me as such and during my early years at school hostel, one such letter got out and fell into the hands of my then mortal enemy, who, as is usual in such stories with melodrama, became a close friend by the time I left school. He dutifully spread it around. I was busy taking stock of the goodies sent along with the letter, so while I was munching on them, the school was getting to know my alternate identity. Not cool. Less cool, trying to beat up fellow students for using that name. Learned early on, violence doesn't work against the will of the people.
As if to repent against that, I took it up as my identifier when the Internet opened up. Not really. I took it up because on the net, it was rare and suitably unique at that point and post school, so many people called me by that name that I was anyway used to it. Now, it's stuck and I'm not complaining. So, bhuto, the name, has come full circle for me.
Incidentally, the similarity with Bhutto, them of Pakistani politics, leads to confusion. I have been shouted at on gamer forums because ardenaline charged up patriotic gamers thought I was a Pakistani. And been included in tweets addressed to Pakistani politicians. Whatever.
[1] You guys do know the difference between a pet name and a nickname, don't you? Pet name is used by immediate family members. The context is familiarity and fondness. Usually decided randomly at birth, by the family. Nickname, on the other hand, is used by friends and usually earned, though not necessarily deserved. These two no longer seem to be separate for a lot of people but when I was growing up they would usually be different.
