[Dr. Zafar Ahmed, zai-alpha@hotmail.com, 29-12-2020]
Reading Time: 6 min
Some names or the letters in them create a humor. In Hindi there is a phrase :`Ma ke lal’ but once a temporary uncle of mine was B. B. K. Lal Shrivastava. One Prof. Kamaal in AMU went to buy eggs in a near by shop. He was told “Andda nahi hai”, he uttered “Kamaal hai, andda nahi hai.” Naughty students around there went on repeating this line: Han Sir, Kamaal hai, andda nahi hai. Kaptan, Subedar, Barrister, Kotwal, Tehsildar and even Karyakarm were some names in BHU, they all were Singh(s). Let us not ignore the Mumbaiwalas: Daruwala, Dabbawala, Screwwala, Boxwala, Zariwala, Arceewala,….
Recently, I heard someone has his name as NIYAM: the rules of the name are changing these days. A new nickname: someone crashed the wall of a glass chamber to be called “Glass Walker”. This may remind us of Johny Walker and the Moon Walker.
Arvind Dixit corrected me that (Late) PKG was Gupta, and the (Late ) Raghu’ was R.U. Raghvendra. So when Mohan Krishna called out his full name, he said “yes, of course”.
The third Lakhsmi of the bacth is M. Lakshmi, It seems there were two more but their names were Anglicized. On the superannuation of P. R. Patil and James Jacob, we got together in TSH on 14th floor on Feb,-22, 2020 where Bruce has come down from Hyderabad to be with us. But James has been added to 27-WA only now, welcome Jacob to the group.
Thankfully, Ravi Prakash is added now R S Datta remains to be added. Welcome Chandramouli and T. Srinivasan to the group. Now there is a trio of Chandra(s) and a duo of Srinivas(s) in our WA. The singer G. Srinivas Rao is yet to be added. Oh! how did I forget the duo of Arun(s)! they are two more SUNs of the batch. One of these Shrivastav can be seen in the hall (on wall) of fame in Vienna Austria. Welcome Commander Ramesh, you are happy painting for a social cause.
Friends, it is very good to have the stock of the batch before the new year comes in.
Suresh Babu claims that in Kerala nothing is added to the name of a woman after her marriage, no wonder they are the most literate state of the country!
In south of India they may have stopped having surnames like Iyers, Ayengars and Krishnans but their names still carry several initials! As the surname appears to be a must internationally, the officials use their per-conceived notions to cook up names and dictate the person what his/her name should be!
With us, he used to be Ravi E. S (Elangar Srinivasanverdan), he migrated to Austraila in 1994. Officials there, cut and pasted his name to tell him that he was Ravi Verdan ! In 2009, the officials for his Green card in USA told him that he should be Ravi Elangar Verdan!! Next, for his OCI card, he had to submit affidavit that all these were his names!!! Every time he travels, he is suspected and searched diligently. Our best wishes to Ravi.
Our batch mate from Andhra likes to be known as G(urazada) Ravikumar, in Germany he was made R. Gurazada. On his request, they unwillingly corrected their fabrication. The official grumbled that Indians don’t know their names well! This German could be far from knowing the diversity and plurality which India is made of. Our batch mate Bahskar Pandit is from UP, there he may be called B. Pandit for short. But when he travels southwards they write him as P. Bhaskar!
A lot of headmasters and principals of schools are known to have influenced the names and the dates of birth of a lot of people. Their ages were reduced/ increased and they even got some improper names, at the time of admissions.
Long back, in Mumbai, once a boy named Vijay went to a school for his admission, the British principal asked him about his surname, the boy did not know this word itself. The Principal then asked him what business was being done at his home. The boy could only say “we sell cloth,” the principal got it : Oh! so you all are Merchants! This is how the famous Cricketer got his name: Vijay Merchant, it seems they were actually Thackersey(s).
I always saw to it that both parts of my name are expanded and I succeeded. Once in ATOMICA Hungary, they wrote my name on their notice board as “Zafar AHMED!” for my talk over there. I preferred ZA but I have been made AZ in service book and I-card, I didn’t mind. Thanks Biswas for underlining this to me, now. I am going to retire, I am worried whether I will get my pension! Because people say that for pension the name in Bank, Aadhar card, Pan card and Service book should be exactly the same! Thanks Srini for your warning. For my pension I will do whatever is required but I don’t know as to who will get it: ZA or AZ.
I may see the recent photographs of batch mates but recalling/ imagining them from their TS looks is the real fun. That is why wise men have said: Be with friends or remember them often, you will be young (Doston ke sath raha karo ya unhe yaad kiya karo, ye kambakth umar ki chadar kheench lete hain!)
I WROTE A STORY 