That
was a fine morning, twenty years back in a village elementary
school; the teacher was taking the attendance for first standard.
“Raghu”
….
“Present Teacher!”
“Raja”
……. “Present
Teacher!”
“Subramanian”
…. There was no
response.
“Subramanian”…
The teacher called the name for the second time and the result
was the same. She
looked up from the book and found me, looking around to help
her to find the student!! The teacher and other students were looking at me while I was
looking around me!!! Suddenly I realized and shouted “Present
Teacher!”
“Are
you sleeping?” The teacher asked me.
“No
Mme! I forgot my
name”
The teacher was shocked by that reply and later started laughing.
The other students joined her as though it was a big joke. But
I was very serious!! That
was the first day; I was introduced to that name “Subramanian”
till then I was called as Kumar (my nick name).
That day, while other students were reading through that
day’s lesson, I was reciting my name “Subramanian”.
That was the first time, I faced problem with my parents’
naming convention sorry naming confusion. I
realized that I had to play a dual role on the stage of my life.
First
one month of my schooling went in full confusion only. I used
to respond to both the names ‘Subramanian’ and ‘Kumar’ both
inside the school as well as outside the school. As the days
passed by I became expert in acting and performed well in both
the roles. When I asked my parents why they had two names, they
explained, Subramanian was the name suggested by our astrologer.
Since our grandpa’s name was the same, my parents were
not comfortable with that name. But, our astrologer convinced
them saying, “Even though your son is dark, his future will
be bright if you keep this name”. That trick worked out and
I got the name Subramanian.
Since my parents were not comfortable in calling me by
that name they called me as Kumar. I was introduced to everyone
as Kumar until I was admitted into the school. To enlighten
my future, while admitting me in the school, they gave the original
name Subramanian! Then onwards I am Subramanian to my
friends and Kumar to all my relatives and neighbours.
The dual name caused
a lot of problems and confusion everywhere.
Be it writing a letter, talking over phone or introducing
myself to others… There is always a question in my mind. Kumar
or Subramanian? 50:50! Even our area postman suffered a lot.
One day he asked my MOM, how many sons do you have Mme?
She replied, ‘Two sons three names!’.
Still I am playing
the dual role, but the sad part is, dual role without even a
single heroine.
While having two
names is a problem, having a long name is another BIG problem.
Subramanian
is quite a long name is it? Many people think so.
So far nobody had called me by full name except my class
teachers that too when they took attendance!!!
Hope you all know Lord
Subramanian. If he knows the various other forms of his name,
he will feel very bad and in future he wont let anyone to keep
that name!
In
my school days, initially many of my classmates used to call
me as “Subramani”. That was quite okay. When I was studying
8th standard, the famous director Balumahendra’s
tamil movie “Moonram Pirai” got released and it was a super
hit. In Hindi it was ‘Sadhma’. Kamal Hassan was the hero and
Sridevi was the heroine. In that movie, she used to call one
of her associates as “Chuppuramani” with lot of love.
I would have been happy if she had called the hero by that name.
But, it was a puppy! Yes
my dear friends! She used to call a puppy as ‘Chuppuramani’.
After
seeing that movie, my friends used to call me the same way with
the same affection! The worst part was, whenever they heard
the barking of any dog, they used to see me and say “Chuppuramani,
Keep quite!” That was really so frustrating!!
There
are some people who call me as “Suppy” and some others
as “Suppuni”. I
don’t know what prompted them to call me like that.
But one thing is for sure.
They are so creative!
So
far the various forms of Subramanian are:
Subramani,
Chuppuramani,
Suppuni,
Suppy,
Mani,
Subbu,
Subbanna,
Subbudu…
I
don’t know how many names will I still get.
The
moral of the story is, having a name is key. But having
more than one name is risky.
Having a long name is a tragedy. It may be too
late for us to change our name if its too long, but please remember
to name your children short so that the name wont be beaten
up or broken up by anyone!
