What's in a name?

Ha ha ha. It is hilarious to read how your colleagues were called in SBI. I am curious to know how you were called, Sir? ( In our school days we used to call Srinivasan as katterumbu since katterumbu lives in sugar).

Regards,

TDU

 

Dear Cheeniya,

Please forgive me for my over-indulgence in this topic of 'What's in a name?'. I remembered how names are changed with times. One of my friends by name Ananathanarayanan is settled here in U.S and I was surprised to find his name missing in the directory of General Motors where he is working. Later I came to know that his colleagues have changed his name for convenience to Anthony and he is now known as Anthony Ananathanarayanan. There are similar names as Peter Subramanian, John Balasingam, David Subbiah. It does not mean that all these people have been converted into christianity, but only have added familiar christian names for conveneince.

I remember two jokes connected with names happened practically with me while working at BARC. In the first instance, we were organising a training course for people working with radiation in industry. My north Indian colleague was collecting the applications. Out of curiosity, I asked him,'Is there any candidate from Tamil Nadu'. He replied, 'Yes, one Madhya arasu has applied'. I was aghast at the name although I know weird names like Maanankatti are possible in Tamil Nadu. Still to name a person as Madhya Arasu (why not maanila arasu?) looked peculiar to me. It is only after seeing the actual application I realised that the name 'Mathi Arasu' has been twisted as Madhya arasu.

In another instance, myself and my colleague were discussing a phenomenon of light emission from solids and I gave a rather new explanation. Immediately my colleague jumped in fun and said I have a new discovery. He said that since he was also involved in the discovery it should be named as GK effect (his name was Kathuria). One of our other colleague by name Seethapathi who had come mid-way during our conversation insisted playfully that his name also should be included in the effect. I just thought over and said, 'no problems. we will call it as GKS effect. But, only we will put an apostrophy between K and S.

Regards,

TDU

 

Dear Cheeniya,

Again on the subject of 'What is in a name?', I would like to share with you the news that in Malaysia naming of children by certain names has been banned. It seems the elders of Chinese, Tamil and other communities met and decided this and brought as an act of Parlimrnt. For example, one cannot name a child as James Bond or in Tamil,' Karuppasamy'. For more information you can read here.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Malaysia outlaws unsuitable names

Regards,

TDU

 

Dear Sri,
I literally rolled with laughter on reading your last 2 posts.
Well for tomorrow's meet, I was planning to make Thayir Vadai & now I am cancelling it in your honour ! I cannot help laughing when I serve it & everybody may wonder what is going wrong with me !

Vish had a friend K B Sundaresan & he used to call him Kubeel Sundari ! That man used to beg Vish literally not to shout like that !
Love,
Chithra.

 

Dear Cheeniya,

What a coincidence! My nick name when I was a boy was also 'Thayir Vadai' since there was a comedy actor in Tamil films by name 'Thayir Vadai Desikan'. I was so thin like him, I got that name.

Regards,

TDU

 

Dear Cheeniya,

I would like point out one correction to what you say 'will be denied entry into the country'. The Malaysian act is for only naming the newborns and especially when they register the births. If one does not register the birth or do not want a birth certificate, they can name babies as they wish. To some extent I agree with them. Parents while naming babies should consider the future also. What if a baby girl is named as Abhayakuchalambal, the girl will be highly embarassed in later years and may wish her parents have named her with better short and sweet names.

Regards,

TDU