So it was only when I moved to the US (from France) at age 18 that everyone started calling me Sidd, following that American mania of shortening all names to one syllable. I accepted it without thinking, and eventually began using it to introduce myself. At least it spared me the Hermann Hesse questions. But I never felt like a Sidd.
It took me years to accept that the nickname was really bothering me; years more to realize I could do something about it. One day five years ago I sent an email to all my friends asking them to call me any nickname they liked, just not Sidd. It was a profoundly liberating moment. So much so that when I’m called Sidd now, which happens from time to time, it barely bothers me anymore.
But now comes this, and I’m starting to have ugly flashbacks:
SIDD, a new musical based on the novel “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse, will begin performances at Dodger Stages 5 (340 West 50th Street) on Thursday, February 23 @ 8:00 PM. With music & lyrics by Doug Silver and direction, book & additional lyrics by Andrew Frank, SIDD will have its official opening on Wednesday, March 22 @ 8:00 PM.
Oh boy. Here we go:
SIDD chronicles the extraordinary journey of a manÂ’s life from his youthful wanderings in his home village, through his many years living amidst the glamour jazz and corruption of the city, his encounter with Buddha and ultimately, his enlightenment that follows. SIDD features a diverse cast of seven accompanied onstage by piano, cello and percussion trio. The musicalÂ’s eclectic score draws on various influences from Richard Rodgers to reggae.
There’s a couple of places I could go with this. One has to do with names. The artistic gesture of adapting Siddhartha the seeker into Broadway Sidd, reminds me of the casual dismissal of non-native names that I, like many others, underwent — and of my years of meek acquiescence, of which I am vaguely ashamed. I wonder if other mutineers relate.
Then there’s the musical itself. I found two desi-ish connections on the show’s roster:
Directed by Andrew Frank, SIDD will feature Neil Maffin (B’way: Salomé; Off B’way: Entertaining Mr. Sloan, The Sum of Us, The Illusion) in the title role, alongside Marie-France Arcilla (Off B’way: The Ark), Dann Fink (B’way: Les Miserable), Pamela Jordan (B’way: Dracula, The Boy From Oz) Nicole Lewis (B’way: Lennon), Arthur Marks, and Gerry McIntyre (B’way: Once On This Island; Off-B’way: The Audience). This production features set design by Maruti Evans, lighting design by Chris Dallos, costume design by Michael Bevins & sound design by Andrew Bellware. SIDD is presented by Always On The Way / Fran Kirmser Sharma.
Maruti Evans turns out to be a guy. Fran Kirmser Sharma went to Skidmore and I guess must have married a brother named Sharma. By the way, here‘s the cat who’s playing Sidd.
Now there’s got to be some mutineers who can give us the inside scoop on this fine production. Meanwhile, I am sure that somewhere out there in the Sepiasphere, there’s a Bengali-American brother called Buddhadeb or Buddhaditya who goes by the name of Bud.
Well, from non-desis I personally cheerfully accept Sid to the alternative (which usually comes out See-Darth… Vader).
But actually, ‘cos of a spelling mistake by my parents on my birth certificate, my name is spelled siDharth (note the single D). This not only helps shoot me up the Google rankings, but has the added advantage of being an anagram of HARD SHIT.
I pity all you HARDD SHITs out there…
Sid/harth
dear hard shit 🙂
thanks for making me chuckle…
and sidd.. hmm.. can understand your ehem.. angst with a nickname.. in preschool my teacher coudln’t say my name and shortened it to something simpler.. my dad got pissed off when i told him..and went to my school and taught them how to prounouce it.. he was like, ‘i gave her that name and she wil go by that name’..took care of the nickname issue in an instant 😉
but now, i just go by the ‘bean’…
SL called you Sidd too.
Peace
Boy, I can understand how this would give you ugly flashbacks:
Personally, I’m still in the glamour jazz and corruption of the city phase, but I also only have a duet playing my mood music, not a trio 😉
Your last line reminds me of one of those ABCD flicks, a line about a desi dude who thinks he’s black: ‘Somewhere out there, there’s a black guy driving a Honda Civic and praying to Ganesh.’
I know of a Siddharth who introduces himself with: “Hi, I am Siddharth, yeah…like in the Hermann Hesse book. You’ve read it?”
Yes, he has no game.
well,the one HARDD SHIT i knew back in college in india was called Sid since forever….he had a fascination for everything american and in our profound wit & wisdom,we actually started calling him Sid-man back then….(superman,spiderman,batman,all american dudes…..so,Sid-man….obvious isnt it!!)…..its funny how linear our desi thought process worked…..
the percussionist is a good friend of mine, and subbed in that god-awful, post-post-post-colonial “bolly wood dreams” tragedy that was on broadway. He’s from New Jersey, so go see it! Also they’re rehearsing upstairs from the touring company of Bombay Dreams on the 7th floor (studios 7a and 7b), and it–i shit you not– looks to be emotive and dramatic.
i guess that’s a good thing? The ms. is all for drama and circumstance; i’m more for hot chicks in fountains and hot pink “chaiyya chaiyya” outfits. what can ya do?
elbowing mr.c aside
This thing sounds like a hot mess.
Take out the “encounter with Buddha” and it’s every bildungsroman story ever written. Only with “Rodgers to Reggae” playing tunefully beside it. eugh.
and what is “glamor jazz”? Is that like acid jazz or fusion jazz? I mean, I’m all for anything that peeves the Jazz at the Lincoln Center people, but this just might be where I draw the line…
(or insert a comma)
as meri honi-walli bibi wrote, “bildungsroman…”
arey yaar. please. actually matlub ke it is a sign that you are needing to get some of the sleep.
(and fi real… there’s, like, totally hot chicks in the production. that’s what matters, hanna?)
drags mr. cicatrix off sepiamutiny
Silly Siddarth, nicks are for kids.
That was Kal Penn in American Desi
hilarious. the whole hermann hesse thing is a big bugaboo for us siddharth(a)s. being very light-skinned due to my biraciality (“so fair!” the aunties gushed, even the ones who disapproved of miscegenation… funny how that works), and on top of it being the right generation (born at the tail end of the summer of love), i always get the “were your parents hippies?”
hmph. at the time, my dad, scion of the decayed bengali bourgeoisie, was more of a maoist.
Actually, except for you, both of the other Siddharthas I’ve met were biracial, and the name was chosen by their parents precisely because of the Hesse book. Then again, they were younger than you are 😛
OK, that didn’t come out right. You are also biracial, but your name was not chosen for the same reason. Sheesh. Incoherent comment time.
uh-oh, mr. cicatrix is in trouble!
You have a beautiful name Siddhartha and if you can learn to say Hermann Hesse, they might as well learn how to pronounce Siddhartha. When was it decided that brown people will have to compromise? I am sure at some point it was hard to Angelina Jolie. 🙂
have some coffee my brother. according to family legend, the name was selected by my calcutta grandmother. for all i know, given social milieu and political inclination, it could just as well have been inspired by siddhartha shankar ray, prominent lawyer at the time and later indira crony and chief minister of west bengal (the last congree one before the left front took over in 1977). s. s. ray was the grandson of chittaranjan das, the early congress leader and first “native” mayor of calcutta. yeah, we was rollin’ like that at the time. (now? don’t ask.)
It is interesting that many Bengalis (of a Hindu background) have been named after the Buddha. Besides ‘Siddhartha,’ ‘Buddhadeb’ seems to be a very common name in Bengal. Maybe this is because the Buddha was accepted by Hindus of that region as one of the incarnations of Vishnu.
Guilty as charged – sorry Siddhartha! 🙂
Decided to resurrect this thread as the dinner dutch thread went off on a tangent.
Imagine my frustration with a name like Praveen spelled Pravin. When I say my name, 99% of the non Indians have absolutely no problem pronouncing it. But if they see my name first, then it takes them a while to get used to saying praveen instead of Previn(as in Andre Previn) or Pray-vin. No big deal. Understandable. But whenever the odd person tries to say “oh, let me use a nickname instead” and one middle aged lady actually suggested “PUNJAB” , I told her “fine, as long as I can call you Dublin”. She realized how foolish her gesture was and had no problem saying my name since and everything was cool.
The funny thing is it gets mispronounced by Pakistanis and Iranians a lot more because muslim women have the name Parveen.
My family is South Indian. I am just glad I didn’t get one of the superlong names with 4 or 5 god names embedded in it because then I may not be so insistent on the correct pronunciation. But I would try to shorten it with a more suitable Indian version if possible. (example: in the case of my cousin, Subi for Subramanyam).
I think part of the pronounciation is also how the others view your attitude. If they see any opening, they will try to get away with a mispronunciation. My sis has the name M a m a t h a. A lot of her colleagues say MumAATha. Funny thing is my friends immediately have no problem pronouncing her name. She is a softie when it comes to demanding her name be pronounced right.