What's there in a name?

Many people have interpreted the sentence 'What's there in a name?' in many ways and in different situations. I think, this adage has been misused more often than not. I am not going to argue about the line in this piece. I took this line as I thought it is an appropriate title for this piece.

I am Amitava Chatterjee (I shouldn't have said such as obvious thing!).
I am 29 years old (Could have stayed without disclosing my age!)

25 years ago I was Amitava Chatterjee (So what???Isn't it obvious?)
25 years ago I was in my kindergartens in my dear old St. Joseph's Convent,Chandannagore,my hometown, a small town in India.


What am I driving at with the statements above?
I am trying to say that today's 'Amitava Chatterjee' is not the same as the one that existed 25 years ago.
Have I gone mad??
No, is the precise answer.

25 years ago the world was different to that 'Amitava Chatterjee'. It was about the small boy and his small town. the lush green fields of the school. The dream to get taller and look forward to the new class, the new books and the new uniform. The fear of something unknown, commonly called exams. The desperate wish to grow faster and study in senior classes. If I extend it to some higher classes in the primary classes, it was the friendship with the classmates, the returning to home and play in the evening, dinner with grandparents. I don't want to continue writing, as all of us have the same sort of experience. So, I leave it on the readers to relate when they were kids.

And now...only 25 years passed by. Grandparents are no more. This 'Amitava Chatterjee' is some 1000s of miles from 'his' hometown. Laptop and mobile are his windows to the outside world. Feels lost in the world when the internet connection is down. (Feels lost in the world, anyway!) Thoughts have become complex. The relationships and friendships have a different meaning today. There are business case studies; there are report submissions. His thoughts and imaginations knows no boundaries. He has grown up.

Are these two the same person? Or is it the name has remained the same, the person inside has changed. We all change. Everyday we change, as we are influenced by new actions and thoughts. We change and we evolve. I am not the same person today as I was yesterday. Likewise, I will not be the same person tomorrow or some years later. But the change is so small, that nobody understands and wakes up in the morning and says 'God! I have changed!'. But, believe me, you have changed!
Scientifically speaking, each day thousands of old cells die and thousands of new ones are born. It has been seen that every seven years the entire body cells get replaced. So, in any way, over a period of years, we all the change. We are different human being today than we were some years back!

What was dear to you some years back, may not be so dear now. Why? If you were the same person, this should not have happened. If I had an affinity towards something, say chicken fried rice twenty five years back, I should have had the same affinity today, too. Lets put it in a different way. If sodium and chlorine reacted under certain temperature, pressure and other external factors to produce sodium chloride or salt twenty five years ago, then it will do so now...it will do so twenty-five years later and forever, for that matter. Then why is my affinity towards fried rice changed? I liked it so much then, but can't tolerate its smell today! The fried rice did not change (considering it was cooked under same conditions all the time). I say, because I have changed. Our taste for something changes, because we change. We all do. For some the change occurs in five years, for some it may be twenty-five year. But we all change.Whether we admit it or not.

I think when people say 'You've changed!', (one a lighter note, this is one thing wives often say to their husbands!) then they refer to the relative change. When the change between people is different, then the gap of the relative changes widens. You find it hard to get a conversation going with a friend who was your best friend some years back. The reason is, you both have changed differently. Your views don't match anymore. Those two best friends have long been buried. These two persons have different opinions and views. Ironically, those two best friends and these two persons have the same name.

Over the years we all live lives of different people under a common name! Those who live them simultaneously are called split personalities; those who live one after another are called normal human beings - WE!