Indian babies born during flood, named for Ganges

In late August, the northern Indian state of Bihar experienced massive flooding. The water reached unprecedented levels in several locations and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

A handful of the babies born amid the floods were given baby names inspired by the Ganges river:

  • Gangesh, a baby boy born in a relief camp. His mother said, “I named him Gangesh as we have been displaced by the river. The name will always remind me that my first child was born in a relief camp.”
  • Gangaputra Bhism, a baby boy born aboard a rescue boat. The word putra means “son,” so his full first name means “son of the Ganges.” In Hindu mythology, the character Gangaputra is also known by the name Bhishma.
  • Namami Gange, another baby boy born aboard a rescue boat. The word namami refers to bowing or prostration. Namami Gange is also the name of a government program launched in 2014 to decrease pollution in the Ganges.

One of the babies born during last year’s flood got the particularly unique acronym-name NDRF, which honors India’s National Disaster Response Force. His last name was Singh, so he immediately reminded me of Skylab Singh.

Sources:

Image: The Ganga River, Sunset from Patna by Prabhat114 under CC BY-SA 4.0.

P.S. One of the sources of the Ganges is Nanda Devi

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