About Myself - Beauty, Joy, Love

My name, Mangalam, has its roots in Sanskrit. Mangalam means ‘auspiciousness’. It is a very famous word and there are numerous companies named mangalam in India. There is even a village named Mangalam in South India. Mangalam is used in countless traditional Hindu devotional songs.

When I started this blog, I wanted it to represent my name. But, why call it blog ‘beauty, joy, love’? Well, it’s another interpretation of my name.

Let me start from the beginning.

When I was in high school, we had religious classes once a week. Muslim students gathered at the ‘surau’ (prayer room), Christians at the chapel, and Hindu and Sikhs gathered a class room. Once we had a speaker come to talk about on the Sanskrit word ‘mangalam’. He explained the meaning of ‘mangalam’ is auspiciousness. He then went further to explain that it has three components to it - ‘beauty, joy, love’. For the next half and hour he explained how ‘mangalam’ or ‘beauty, joy, love’ are the basic attributes of the Hindu religion.

After 20 years, I can’t remember much of religious talk. But, the three words - beauty, joy, love- stuck with from then on. For someone who was teased all my life because of my name, the talk was very inspiring.My name was and still is difficult to pronounce for people who are not from a Hindu or Indian background. Growing up in Malaysia (a multicultural society), I  was teased mercilessly in primary school. 'Manga' (part of name), means Mango in Malay. Children being children, always found something to tease you. There were times where I wished that I had a different name.

I became proud of my name after the talk. I took pride in it. 

The talk also made it easier for me to explain to people the meaning of my name. It simplified a complex concept of ‘auspiciousness’ to three easy simple concepts - ‘beauty, joy, love’.

So ‘beauty, joy, love’ came into my mind.when I needed a name for my blog.