Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi: Trolls pulled up for unseemly fuss over name

MUMBAI: He was barely a few hours old when actors Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor’s new born who they named

Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi

was already a trend on social media prompting hysteria, typical of the times we live in.

On Tuesday, the new parents had expressed happiness over an official statement announcing the birth of their son: “We are very pleased to share with you all the wonderful news about the birth of our son: Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi, on December 20, 2016. We would like to thank the media for the understanding and support they have given us over the last nine months, and of course especially our fans and well-wishers for their continued affection. Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all.... With love, Saif and Kareena,” they had signed off.

But within hours of the revelation,

trolls

had swooped down on Taimur and remained busy debating, defending or attacking the choice of name all day.

Taimur is an Arabic word which means iron but the name is commonly associated with one of the most feared conquerors in history. While some dredged up the memoirs of this Turco-Mongol conqueror and founder of the Timurid Empire in Persia and Central Asia to underline his conquests including his plunders in India, some compared it with his otherwise illustrious lineage, given that Taimur’s paternal grandmother Sharmila Tagore was a direct descendent of Rabindranath Tagore who married his grandfather Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, the ninth Nawab of Pataudi and the former captain of the Indian cricket team.

Then there were others who admonished the trolls asking them to calm down. “The fiasco around Taimur’s name just reiterated my belief that some people are jobless, stupid and need to go back to school,” wrote Reya. Interestingly, former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah came out in support of the actor couple and tweeted, “The only people who get to decide a baby's name are the parents of said baby & the ones they ask. Why should opinion of the rest matter?” followed by “So congrats to Saif & Kareena and a long happy life to their baby son. May #TaimurAliKhan have a happy & healthy life.”

Sociologist Nandini Sardesai reasoned, “Taimur, when he attacked India, was fighting against another Muslim dynasty and the main aim of plunder in those days was a part of war games. It had a political motive, not religious. It’s unkind of people to make such petty communal statements.”

It isn't uncommon to find namesakes of controversial historical figures around you either. Perhaps the most famous bearer of such a heavy name is politician Stalin (named after the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin). There is also a secondhand bookseller in Matunga whose father had named him ‘Hitler’ “because he liked it”. Curiously, Delhi has a stretch called Taimoor Nagar while Kolkata has a road named Tamer Lane, one of the many names that Taimur was known by.