[This post has been long overdue! Two nights back I was surfing through the Channels and landed on the one that was showing SRK trying real hard to show how he can get Autistic! I will reserve my comments on that performance for another post, but first it's I, me and myself. So read on.]
"It is a bit Big", a bird sitting next to me in office chirped. I chuckled. She was commenting on my name(before you run your imaginations wild). I told her how a friend of mine in his inimitable sarcasm had exclaimed-"I never knew you had such a magnificent name! You could write a Novel, make a movie out of it." I had chuckled then, too.
It all started way back in 1976, when I was, apparently to the joy of my paternal and maternal family, born. Now both the families suggested names- Paternal side suggested Srinivas and Maternal side suggested Chetan and in a magnanimous moment when the decision had to be taken, someone(I really dont know who) decided to appease both the sides! And thus I was christened Srinivas Chetan. Now,along with these two names came the initials H and K(H is the village we hail from, Hebbar. K is my father's name, Keshavamurthy, the part I am proud of in the entire protraction.
My parents kept it simple calling me chethi mostly and chetan occasionally (the latter with a soprano, which usually meant I was about to be spanked).
At school, my friends called me Chetan. Teachers were having a tough time choosing from Chetan to Srini to Srinivas. In the professional world, the crisis continued- but it stabilised between chetan, srini or a very rare 'chet'. This went on and I thought I was settling down- until recently- when I joined this organisation which demanded I give my name "as it is in the passport".
And so I had to give my fully expanded name- "Srinivas Chetan Hebbar Keshavamurthy", which now has become my display name on all my official emails and chat.
The new set of colleagues keep asking me -"What do I call you?" Considering the wide range I have to offer, I just narrow it down to "Srini or Chetan- you can pick". I am sure I have left an entire office confused. But then, Srinivas Chetan is my name, and its all the same!
Birds keep chirping, and I keep chuckling, wondering "Whoever said What's in a name?"
God, Stop this Game.
Addendum: I need to mention the shortest way anyone has addressed me- "C". Thats from my butter-half.
