"What's in a name? that which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet".- William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
My actual first name is Jayasudha- strike that- my mom had originally named me Sudha when I was born.She had said that even as a 3 year old I had a mind of my own!! (well no surprises there).She had told me that inspired by the dance moves of a famous South Indian movie star then by the name Jayasudha and whose moves I used to imitate I informed my kindergarten teacher that my name was Jayasudha-a name which means in Sanskrit -'Sweet victory'(Jaya= victory & Sudha=sweet nectar)- maybe I should turn into a honey bee right now!So the name stuck and became part of my official identity all through my school,College and Universities in India- everyone knew me as Jayasudha.
Since marriage I have lived in different parts of the globe.I'm quite aware that people from other parts of the world are not exposed to double barrelled Sanskrit based Indian first names. Well then I thought- I'll make everyone's life easier by identifying myself as just Sudha with it just being 2 syllables & so it would not be so complicated to pronounce.
But then I now realize it's not always that simple-even this is not without its share of moments of fun.Now would be a good time to tell you that I have a glass wall in my office which I treat as my amusement corner & where I post stuff which makes me chuckle.
I started collecting or rather writing down how many ways people(staff/ clients/other professionals) can slaughter my name.
Check out the picture - you 'll know how many..and the list is nowhere near exhaustive!
What surprises or stumps me most is when professionals responding to emails I've sent with my name spelt out clearly still write back to an alias that is not even remotely close to my name !!!! How they do that is beyond me - seriously!
Anyway I don't get offended at all coz I'm conscious that I might have similar challenges if someone asked me to pronounce names like 'Stelios Giannakopolous','Sieb Djikstra','Yakubu Aiyegbeni','Stig Inge Bjornebeye' and 'Piotr Swierczewski' names which I didn't have to spell or say whilst growing up!!!
So I'd rather enjoy the humor my name leads to. After all I'm supposed to be this sweet person or something.
