Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Nov. 5, 2011)

Volere e Potere

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.
… Henry Ford
Garbled Proverb

The road paved with good intentions is hell to travel.

From My Persian Dictionary

Khatír: desire

Havas: desire

Ishtiyák: desire

Bakht: destiny

From the Trivia File

A Hint-to-Housewives in the New York Post: “Make sure your kitchen range is level; if it’s not, the foods cooked in the oven won’t burn as evenly as they should.”

What’s in a Name?

The Kherdian sub-clan traces back to a common ancestor. Here is what Charles (Garabed) Hardy of Racine, Wisc. has to say about the history of the name:

Uncle Garabed,

The story about our family name, Kherdian, is the following. The name of our entire clan was Bakaian. Our part of the clan became Kherdian as a result of the following event: My paternal grandfather, Garabed Kherdian, was a carpenter by trade. One day a Turk from a neighboring village came to Khulakugh (a village near Kharpert City) and asked Grandfather Garabed to make and hang a door for him. When the job was completed, Grandfather Garabed went to see the Turk to get paid. The Turk told him that he did not have the money that day and that Grandfather should come back another day. Each time Grandfather went to see the Turk to get paid, he got the same answer. Finally, he was convinced that the Turk had no intention of paying him.

So Grandfather Garabed came up with a plan. Late one night, he along with his brothers and cousins went to this Turkish village. While everyone was sound asleep, they chopped down the door and fled. As they were fleeing, the Turks woke startled and started screaming “kherduh khashduh” which in Turkish dialect means “destroyed and fled.”

Since that time the name of our part of the clan became Kherdian.

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CK Garabed

Weekly Columnist

C.K. Garabed (a.k.a. Charles Kasbarian) has been active in the Armenian Church and Armenian community organizations all his life. As a writer and editor, he has been a keen observer of, and outspoken commentator on, political and social matters affecting Armenian Americans. He has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Reporter and the AGBU Literary Quarterly, “ARARAT.” For the last 30 years, Garabed has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Weekly. He produces a weekly column called “Uncle Garabed's Notebook,” in which he presents an assortment of tales, anecdotes, poems, riddles, and trivia; for the past 10 years, each column has contained a deconstruction of an Armenian surname. He believes his greatest accomplishment in life, and his contribution to the Armenian nation, has been the espousing of Aghavni, and the begetting of Antranig and Lucine.

Latest posts by CK Garabed (see all)

• A Reminiscence: John Najarian - February 19, 2020
• Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Aug. 5, 2017) - August 7, 2017
• Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (July 22, 2017) - July 22, 2017