Recently Taimur's aunt Soha Ali Khan had said that her nephew could be the most popular member of the family right now. And she is not far from the truth. From the day he was born, the little tot had been grabbing headlines left, right and centre. Now that Taimur is celebrating his first birthday today, little does the child know he is one of the most sought-after celebs in Bollywood right now. And also, how he grabbed most of the headlines just with his name.
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Let's go back a year before. Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor named their new-born baby Taimur. For them, the name meant 'iron' in Arabic. But someone who had a little knowledge of history realised that Taimur is similar to the name of the Mongolian emperor Timur, and Twitter and Facebook began to go abuzz with this information. That's when the trouble began!
Well, this Mongolian emperor Timur was not exactly known for his friendly ways. Historians report the emperor to be a bloodthirsty ruler and an aggressive invader. So people had objections with the Nawabi couple, as to how they can name their kid after this man, when the truth was that they didn't. Soon, both Saif and Kareena were trolled on various social networking sites, and some sickos even wished death for the little kid, who has yet to understand the meaning of his life. What's more, even news channels sought to make this issue their primetime discussions, giving fringe parties their chance to troll Saif and Kareena.
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Two months later, Kareena finally reacted to the controversy, when she spoke to HT. She had said, “The controversy was bizarre. I have no idea why people took my baby’s name so personally. But we love the name and let me put it this way — it has no resemblance to any person living or dead. We love the meaning (Taimur means iron in Arabic) and I am happy that [some] people came out in support of us so strongly. That support matters more than anything bad that was said or written.”
Saif Ali Khan even dragged poor Shah Rukh Khan's name (as if King Khan didn't have enough controversies of his own), as he justified his son's name. He had said, "My daughter told me, why don't you say that you have not named him after Timur Lang, say that's Timur and this is Taimur. I said it still sounds similar. She says just say they have same roots. The name is nice and it sounds good and it means something nice but it is not named after that guy. Well, yes, the name is the same, but the name also predates the person called Timur Lang. Incidentally, Timur Lang's son was Shah Rukh, who is the guy who supposedly said we should actually plunder India. A lot of fighting was done by his sons, but nobody has a problem with the name Shah Rukh."
Now looking back at the whole circus, we wonder if and when Taimur grows up and understands the whole furore over his name, what's going to be his first reaction. Well, at least he can take pride on the fact that he has got the taste of controversy much much before any of the peers, or for the matter any of the stars. Only he has too innocent to have realised it!