The long and short of it

I am returning from a long hiatus. There are no great, romantic reasons, its only that I was faced with a dearth of topics to write about. I kept thinking about an intellectual topic, with views which will rattle the readers, but I failed. Thinking, I realized that I had been staring at the topic all this long! Here it goes......

The focus here will be simply on...my name! As most people may know, my name is quite an interesting one, the primary reason being its length and complexity. For those who don't know, my full name is KRISHNATREYA BRINDAVANAM. Some facts about it before I proceed further:

1. It is 23 letters long.
2. I have successfully defended my title as "The One with the Longest Name" successively for 10 years, before losing out to a girl with a 32 letters long name. Then, she left the school, so I regained the title keeping it even after I changed schools. The record is still there, even in college.
3. For purposes of ease, my forward-thinking dad shortened it to B.K. Atreya. Only, it turned out, he didn't think too forward. The story of my name thus begins.........

The first question most people ask is, "What is the full form of B.K.?" Of course, poor people are humans and thus blessed/cursed with a sense of curiosity, to solve anything mysterious. I have no idea what they expect, but yes, I found out that saying something vague only piques their curiosity and I am left with no other choice, other than revealing the Great Secret. So I go "its Brindavanam Krishna". This is followed by a minimum of two repetitions, which they try to parrot, but most usually fail.

The second question, you guessed it, is "What does it mean?" A relatively easier question, compared to the Herculean task I had just accomplished. I say "it is the real name of an ancient Ayurvedic doctor called Charakha". Some people know who he is, some do not, but that is not an issue. There are all kinds of people in this world. The crown goes to people who say "OK, but what does it MEAN??" Now, I am posed with something which linguists have tried to solve for ages. What is the meaning of a name or word? We say "my name is XYZ, its a name for Goddess Lakshmi". OK, but what is the meaning of "Lakshmi"? Stumped, eh? I have searched high and low, yet couldn't find an answer to this question.

These questions are sometimes followed by inane, moronic comments like "that's long", "why is it so complicated?", etc. But the practical ones ask "what does everyone call you?" or "what do u prefer to be called?" So I answer and that's the end of it!

I would now dwell a bit further and try explaining about names. It so happens, that my name isn't the longest in the world (sad, eh? after all this trouble!). There are longer names I know of. The reason for the "perceived" complexity is that my "fore name" is long! See, we have Chattopadhyays, Bandopadhyays, Gnanamgaris, Krishnamurthys, etc. But most of these are taken in stride and not gawked upon. Why? Because they are surnames, man! You don't offend a person by "wtf'ing" his surname! You just say "OK" and pray you never have to spell it on paper someday. On the other hand, you use a person's forename more than anything and thus need to get everything clear about it!
I digress a bit here to talk about the uber glorious Brindavanam clan. We are Vaishnavas, traditional occupation being priesthood(who could imagine one of their progeny being an agnostic, but thats for another blog). It so happens, that our caste has this habit of putting the name of their village as their surname. So, as the geniuses reading this may have realized, my ancestors hailed from Vrindavan, before shifting down south for reasons best known to them.

Anyways, getting back to my name, I am now very much used to all the colourful and creative pronunciations and spellings which my name spawns. Trust me, I seriously don't feel bad. Its OK man. My name is tough to pronounce, I have to live with it. It gives me a laugh, though, the kind of word twisting people keep coming up with. It'll continue throughout, and I am up for it. Its only a bit embarrassing amongst a large group of people, when someone tries to grapple with the name openly.

What irritates me a bit is not pronunciation, but spelling. Granted, you can't write my spelling correctly in the first go, when I say it. But, when I am spelling it out to you, why do you still apply pressure on your top floor and end up getting irritated? I am saying "its K R I S . . ." and meanwhile, this enterprising name writer has already written "KRISNATARAYA" or "KRISN TARAYA" or something else and then cuts the name with unnecessary force to re-write it. I usually let it go, unless its an official document or something.

As I wrap this up, I think to myself- "do I love my name?" I won't say I love it, for all the problems I face, but I prefer ignoring it and seeing the glass half full. After all, I haven't yet met a person with the same forename as mine. Can YOU say the same, reader?

Being "different" is overrated

I start thinking out loud from today. I start telling in detail, what exactly I am thinking, instead of giving a glimpse of them in Facebook statuses.

And I start NOT trying to think differently!

I thought about it for a long long time. Why is being different SO "cool"? Why have we, as a society, started treating such "different" people as existing in a different realm altogether? Related to this, but not completely part of this, is the romanticizing of rebelliousness. And if you think being a rebel is so great, then why stop at "rebel thinkers"? Why don't you proceed towards idolization of anti socials? Who burn tires, who spray graffiti on walls and who, I think, should be declared as Public Nuisance of the First Order! Maybe, since they think differently, since their ideas of society are so twisted, we should treat them with the same respect with which we treat people who are intellectually different!

Anyways, I ramble. Coming back to the point of those intellectually different, whose thinking is too complex for normal, conventional people to understand. Is being normal so uncool? Calling a spade a spade is not good. No. You have to philosophize on the existence of the spade and spin yarns around it so that people say "Wow! Here is someone unconventional!"

Don't get me wrong. I am not here to bash such people. Indeed, as I know so many of them, they wouldn't even care! What I here say is that straight-thinkers are NOT inferior! You go by the straight, short path and not by a circuitous, long route; then good for you and others! A minority choose the second route, then good for them and other like minded people! The former don't have to put the latter on a different plane!

As I come to the end of my first blog, I would ask the reader to be a little lenient, a little forthcoming and treat this as a blog and not as a rant (which it seems to be).

Thank you

Comments welcome!