A 24-year-old woman named 'India' by her late patriotic social worker father says she is proud of it even though she faces repeated queries from the inquisitive people she comes in contact with.
"It was my father's spirit of nationalism that prompted him to name me India," she says, adding she endured questioning by curious students all through her school and college days wanting to know the reason behind the unusual name.
A BSc computer science graduate from Bharathidasan University, the woman got married in Thanjavur today to J Stalin in a simple traditional ceremony.
When asked on the reason behind her name, India said that it was her late father R Elangovan, a social activist and a "staunch nationalist" who chose the name.
"I have been praised and also mocked for my name India. I have never bothered about it nor felt carried away by the praise," she says.
She has participated in several competitions and had sung many songs of nationalist, revolutionary poet Subramania Bharathi during her school and college days.
India's uncle A Karthikeyan says Elangovan was a good painter and artist who had staged dramas on social issues and themes which invariably had an undercurrent of nationalism.
"He had staged several dramas on social themes like the evils of alcohol " he said, adding it was the late artist's sense of nationalism that prompted him to name one of his children after his motherland.
