Visits

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

What's in a Name


In the latest news from Jakarta, as reported by The Jakarta Post—Court grants man’s plea to change name—the Tangerang District Court granted a man’s request to officially change his name from Kentut to Ihsan Hadi. The request was made at the behest of the man’s son.

Kentut literally means fart.

Well, you can’t blame the man. I mean, what were his parents thinking? They may as well have named him “Asshole”.

Ihsan (formerly Fart) responded by performing the sujud syukur (prostration of thankfulness) several times in the courtroom. Well, of course he did. My goodness.

Thirty year old Ihsan explained that his son had frequently been teased by schoolmates over the father’s unfortunate name, and often refused to go to school. I’m fairly certain that this can’t have been easy on Ihsan, either, who did not know why his parents had given him this name and said that it had never been clearly explained to him. He had wanted to change his name for years, but no one in his village knew the proper procedure.

But the pressure is off now. The air has finally cleared.

No comments: