Defining a New Legacy - Ameyaa Saahasarthi and the Virtue of Courage
Apoorva and I were blessed with a beautiful little baby girl last month. For all 31 years of my existence, I believed I understood the full breadth of human emotion, but holding her for the first time proved me wonderfully wrong. As a man, I never imagined that I had so many emotions residing within me.
Now that she’s finally here, the most frequent question we’re asked is, “What will you name her?” This question immediately made me remember something pivotal.
When I was doing my bachelors at IIT Delhi - I took a course taught by Prof Simona Sawhney, and during that course, one of the papers we read was - Annihilation of Caste by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.
In that paper, written in 1936, Dr Ambedkar argued that the primary way to break this caste system was to encourage more inter-caste marriages. He believed that over some decades, this approach would solve the caste system and the discrimination stemming from it. He called it, “the real remedy”.
Now, in 2025, inter-caste marriages isn’t as much a tabboo in ‘urban’ India as it was 50 years ago. However, I wouldn’t argue that it has resulted in less caste discrimination or a dissolution of the caste system.
Why? Because the children of inter-caste married couples have mostly either adopted their father’s surname or used a combination of their mother’s surname as middle name and their father’s surname as their primary surname.
I believe that, in order to truly move away from the caste system, we should get rid of both mother’s & father’s surnames from a child’s last name. We’re doing exactly this for our newborn daughter.
What should a surname be then?
For the past 9 months, we’ve been contemplating the core qualities we want our children to possess.
After reading many biographies over time, speaking to some of the greatest entrepreneurs & investors of our times, pondering upon our own journeys and after many long conversations, Apoorva and I came to the same conclusion:
Courage is the single most foundational of all, for without it, compassion cannot be defended, truth cannot be spoken, and love cannot be declared in the face of opposition.
I think of Gandhi, walking toward the sea to make salt, knowing the empire would try to stop him. Of Mandela, choosing forgiveness over revenge after twenty-seven years in a cell. Of Napoleon, seeing opportunity where others saw impossibility, crossing the Alps when winter said no. Of the Wright brothers, defying gravity itself at Kitty Hawk while the world watched skeptically. Of Christopher Columbus, setting sail into an endless horizon, charting a course towards a land unseen, driven by an audacious belief in what lay beyond.
Of Bhagat Singh, facing death with a smile, throwing roses at the gallows. Of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to venture into the terrifying unknown of space, his courage expanding the very frontiers of possibility. Of Marie Curie, working with radium in a shed, pursuing knowledge that glowed in the dark. Of Galileo, whispering “And yet it moves” even as the Inquisition demanded silence.
Each of them possessed this strange quality: the ability to act when others hesitated, to step forward when the sensible thing was to step back.
I can even argue that, it requires immense courage to think independently in today’s time.
We want our daughter to carry this inside her from the very beginning, like a compass that always points toward possibility.
Therefore, we’ve decided to name our little girl Ameyaa Saahasarthi / अमेया साहसार्थी!
Ameyaa / अमेया (n) - It means ‘boundless’. It’s also a name of Goddess Lakshmi.
Saahasarthi / साहसार्थी (n) - the one who embodies courage.
Ameyaa Saahasarthi - The one who embodies boundless courage.
We are not taking away her surname; we are giving her one that is a statement of intent. A legacy not of where she came from, but of who she has the boundless potential to become.
We hope she grows into this name the way plants grow toward light—naturally, inevitably, without force. No pressure, little one :)