NameS(h)ake.

We meet so many people every day and the first thing that strikes me about a person is their name (unless if its someone of the opposite sex). This habit kinda started dring my undergraduate days. I was taken aback on my first day of college when someone asked me what was my last name. Most southies do not have a last/ family / surname. And the person who asked me the question was all the more surprised when I said I do not have one. Everytime I gave this answer people gave me a surprised look as though I had committed some grave sin.

I was totally stumped when I had to get my passport / apply for my GRE / UNivs.. all applications mandatorily required a last name.. you could leave the first name empty, middle name empty but not the last name. Taking it easy.. like the rest of the southies I filled up my dad's name as my last name and left the middle name empty thinking things would end there. But then the problem did not end. These people were so used to addressing everyone by their last name that they now started calling me as Mr.Thiagarajan. Huh.. it took me a hell of a time to tell them that it was my dads name. HAving faced the faces that go blank in India.. I did'nt mind when people called me by my dads name when I came to the use. But now things took a turn. Atleast in India all those who called me by my fisrt name (Visveswaran) shortened it themselves.. Vishwa/Visu/Visvesh nu pala peru enakku... ana intha US makkalukku they could not even shorten it themselves. hmm sarintu I shortened it to VIshy.. thought it would end with that. Things were fine for some time. But now when I took this new job some of my collegues could not say Vishy .. ada paavigala nu.. I finally shortened my name to VIS. Appada ithoda katha mudinjuthunu nenaicha... adutha kelvi.. how do u spell it? Ada paavingala itha kooda guess panna mudiyatha ithula mother tongue vera english. (Its spelled as VIS but pronounced as WISH nu sollalam nu thoinichu oru sec) but then sirichikitte "It's spelled as V I S nu sonnen".

Ippadi "Visvaroobama" iruntha en pera VIS nu surikittangale nu nenaichen. But I was finally happy when then put my FUll name on my office door, but then I noticed there was typo in it Visveswaran aah VisveRwaran nu type pannitanga.. hmm then my manager surprisingly noticed it (she somehow remembered how to spell it but not pronounce it)... odane HR ku she sent an email..and ten mins la I had a new strip on my door. Aah hha arputham nu poi parthen, but then there was a typo again .. this time my name was grossly misspelt.

VisvesRAWAN Thiagarajan ...

aahha.. ippadi oru Sri Raman aah Raaavanan akkitingale ..en per oda arthatha ye ippadi mathithangale nu HR ku mail aah thattina...she called up and asked me for the correct spelling.. then she said she was finding it too tough to fit in the whole name on the sheet as the name had to be of a particular font size..so finally after all this my name board finally reads..as

Vis Thiagarajan.

I Vis, now WISH that it all ends here.


Talking about lastnames, I have often wonder how people can have such weird last names.


There was this girl in my college whose last name was "Boob"