Friday, April 24, 2009

What's in a name?

Yesterday, I introduced myself to a colleague as ‘Kavitha Murali’. And, I was shocked to note that teeny weeny bit of hesitation in me before I introduced myself so. That was when it hit me quite hard. Let me go back in time a bit to set the context before I explain what hit me hard.

Back in school and college, the concept of a second name was practically non existent. That’s ‘cos, for most of us Tams, our second name happens to be our father’s name and we have always been known by our initial followed by our names. For instance, I was always known as M. Kavitha. Unless and until there were two people with the same name and the same initial in a particular class, the expansion of the initial was never required.

This underwent a sea change when I joined B School, where everyone seemed to be having a last name which was not their father’s name but their family name, or some such thing. I started being known and addressed as ‘Kavitha Murali’. Or rather, I started being known as ‘Kavitha Murali’. I have ever since been addressed as ‘Kavitha Murli’ or ‘Kavitha Muraali’. I used to correct the pronunciation initially, but gave up very soon. Now, what does one do with people like
S who wantedly address me as Muraali. Sigh!

Anyways, coming back to the issue at hand, I know that I got accustomed to being addressed as ‘Murli’ pretty soon. What I did not realize till the call with my colleague yesterday was that
I have started introducing myself to others as ‘Murli’. And, it has been such a long time since I came across a Tam colleague that I did not recognize this. So, when I spoke to him, my sub – conscious mind automatically prompted me to say ‘Murali’, like how we write in Tam as ‘Mu’ followed by ‘Ra’ followed by ‘Li’.

I have observed this phenomenon in others before me. I have, for hours at stretch, made fun of all those ‘Narayan’s who introduce themselves as ‘Naren’ and those Chennaiites who pronounce the name of our hometown as ‘Shennai’, ‘Shenai’, or sometimes even ‘Shenoy’. Little did I know then that I would soon fall prey to such an identity theft.

One might say there is not much of a slip between the ‘R’ and the ‘Ra’. Nevertheless, I miss ‘a’ so much, it hurts!

For, after all, what’s in my name but my own identity.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Am An Alliterations' Aficionado

I am suddenly consumed by an insatiable desire to alliterate (if I may say so). That’s why my previous post has quite an unnecessary title, Bleaky Black Bygones. It would have very well sufficed if I had named it ‘Bygones’ or ‘Looking Back’ or ‘Back to the Past’ or ‘Un – Reminiscences’. I considered ‘Bleaky Black Back’, another alliterative title but decided against it for it might convey other unintended meanings.

Anyway, I am digressing here. Getting back to my latest obsession, here are a few more I thought up:
Socialite’s Sabbatical – I had actually come up with the phrase Socialite on a sabbatical; tweaked it a bit for the alliterative allusion
Wow! That gives me my next one.
Alliterative Allusion – I am not sure whether this is actually alliteration, for Wikipedia defines alliteration as ‘the repeated occurrence of a consonant sound at the beginning of several words in the same phrase’
Lost Little Lamb – That was how I was, lost for words to alliterate, for some time after the previous one. Before anyone else points it out, I do accept that ‘little’ is a major force fit here
Glorified Garbage Giver – What I do day in and day out; thinking about it, I am a Glib Glorified Garbage Giver. Or, is it perhaps Glorified Glib Garbage Giver?
Humor Has Happiness Happening Here – Always!
Feverish Fancy For Friggin’ Fantasy Fiction – A friend of mine does have such a fancy

Initially, I thought that I should come up with alliterations for every letter in the English alphabet. Half way through the exercise, I realized that it is an over – ambitious project, just like my final year project in college. I dropped that idea and devised another one, to have increasing number of words in succeeding alliterations. If you notice above, I have started with two, moved to three, then five and then six. However, creating greater than six word alliterations is just beyond me.
So Song! Oops, So Long!

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Bleaky Black Bygones

Most times, I love to look back and reminiscence. I can ramble on for hours and hours about my good old school life, ‘very happening’ internship days and cherished B – school life, amongst other things.
So, it was quite a shock even to me when I shuddered to look back at the past yesterday.

‘She’ brought back memories
Of the rain and the flood
Of night outs and screwed weekends
Of the insufficiency of 24 hours in a day
Of working lunches of Subs and Mcs
Of trying to settle down amidst chaos
Of a lost ‘4 – month’ of my life to work

Today, we had a “Sub” lunch again
And nothing has changed
Just that
These are saner times
And
‘She’ is on the other side now