25, October 2004
 
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Who Am I?  
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Subramaniam. G

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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!  

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