Tuesday, March 15, 2005
17 letters long surname..Srinivasaraghavan..
Little did I think about making an attempt to find that I have 17 letters in my surname until I reached the US of A....there was an american friend of mine here who decided to challenge himself to get my surname right without seeing my id card....he took 10 days !! it all dawned on me when I stepped into Germany the first time I ever visited a place outside my country..I now go back to remember my uncle's words to "shorten my surname" in my passport..alas..its late now..here goes the German immigration inspector.."ma'm can i have ur last name please??there i go spelling 17 alphabets continuously...initimidating him to the rest of his life about indian names...well i dont blame him..i get tired when i have to spell this long name of my Dad..worse comes ur immigration check -in at washington..this guy takes an unusually weird look at my passport, i20 and the screen in front of him...I sweat with imaginations running from deporting to...loss of shelter..until he gets back with a wide grin.."thats a long last name!!"..i can see the feeling of victory in his face (and ofcourse a great relief in myself) for having finished reading those in 3 different places..its 2 years now and there are umpteen such occasions.I was working as a tutor during my first semester..all the UGs are told about their tutors by their last name..except about me..a great advantage of that was I had more foreign friends than others in a short span of time..for i talk to all my UG tutees on first name basis... even now.....there i go to my tutoring school one day to see my boss frowning at me..."Linda r u ok?? Is there anything I can help u with"...She goes"For 3 years now I never changed this word template of mine..But..I gotto change it to accomodate ur surname.."From then on my name went much longer.."Bhooma with the long last name..."I changed jobs and my current boss is an italian..Looking at my resume he goes"sringavasagaravan!!!"..ok...I end up bursting out in a laughter in a so called serious technical interview..:) ..From then on I take one front up to start before anyone takes a courageous attempt to pronounce my surname....The unique question came in when I went to the health center recently..This receptionist have to pull out my chart and she asks me for my last name..I look for something then get hold of a piece of paper to write my last name..She comes back with the chart and asks me"Long ago When u were 5 years old..and ur teacher was trying to teach u to tell ur full name..how long did she take before she got it right??"good question..With a wink I answered her back.."see thats y we dont use surnames ..I was always S.Bhooma until I came in here.."She give a big smile and from the next time whenever she sees me she hands in a paper!!! On a positive note its nice to see someone make u laugh in the health center where u goto complain about some sickness..thank you Dad or rather grandpa...u indirectly made me feel at home at an alien land!!....Since last 2 yrs everyone of my american friends take pride in telling my fullname to its fullest..my boss called me into his room just to say that he finally added my full name to his contact...interesting....For a change I saw my boss smiling at something other than data...results... ..Great way to begin ur day...
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22 comments:
Hi Bhooma, I came to your blog thru Chakra's. Can you tell me your current location so that I can add it under the relevant city in Indibloggers? Thanks.
@thennavan..
iam in Buffalo,Newyork..the place of Niagara falls
came thru chakkra.
I have 19 character last name. Do I need to say more :)
bhooma... hope u know ramya's surname.. its sowmiyanarayananan.. couple of lrs shorter than yours. most of the IT systems in UK can't accomodate her surname and ppl wd apologetically ask if we mind shortening that..
blogged abt another different experience abt 2 yrs back.. read it here
@me,deepak and chakra..guess i can keep quiet looking at ur names..
@chakra..ramya's surname is nothing better after marriage too...
have fun with ur names guys..
dear bhoomamma:getting to know U thro' Chakrapani Sampath( I am never tired of addressing him this way)Yes.It makes a Humorous reading O.K, but the plight of a few Asians especially from South India is really to be sympathised.
Somehow with a premonition i regd my boys' name with the suffix Krishnaswamy ofcourse with a shortened form years back and till today they have no difficulty.
BTW I am the dad of Thennavan now at Washington D.C Metro area.
I write in 2 blogs
http://earlydays.blogspot.com
http://bodhimaram.blogspot.com
I am 75 and wish U all the best.
Partha Krish(Parthasarathy Krishnaswamy)( as in passport)
> ramya's surname is nothing better after marriage too...
- :)) blame it on the same person who named your dad... for it was he who gave me that name.
.. & am glad to find that the same readers who encouraged me to blog are doing the same thing here.. good going!
@kichami...thanks for ur words..I wonder how things will be if I ever get my dad here for his name + surname is "Krishnaswamy Srinivasaraghavan"!!!!nice to see someone call chakra with his full name for we cousins translated his name to english and still call him as Sugar!!
@chakra..yea u r right..may be he wanted us to buzz his name forever in some context..
thanks for ur encouragement :)..
Hey, is this DAV/SVCE Bhooma?
- Jayashree
@sj...yup..its same DAV/SVCE bhooma..so wats gng on with ya..
same old, same old. grad school stuff. Assignments, project, grading....
Bhoomamma:Ur bogging states ur mind as of now."scrambled mind".
Don't worry.There is always a lighr at the end of the tunnel.My son when he was 10 year old hung a picture on the wall which said
"when God closes one door he opens another"Kavimani in hisadaptation of 'OmarKhayyam' said"Thitti Kadavum therinthathada thiravukolum Illayada "(Thittikadavu is the small door oen always in temples,forts etc)Wait for the "thiravukol".All the best.P.K
Still wondering why u had ur yahoo Id as Bhoomari ?
@freeyavedu..who is this bcos this was the first ever email acct i created and yahoo suggested 3 names out of which this was one and I accidentally clicked on it..
where did u get this id from though..
Well, you gave me this id when I asked for your email address. I guess it was sometime during 3rd sem at SVCE
dear Bhoomamma:I asked Chakkarapani sampath whether U got fixed.Don't worry.As U stated
'spring time'will surely come in everbody's life and all that is needed is to be ready and alert
Hi, Long time since the original posting. I have an European surname, and at the Univ of London graduation ceremony at Albert Hall in London, out of some 3000 students hailing from various parts of the world, the guy announcing me to HRH stumbled on my surname. de Figueiredo. Go figure :))
Hi Bhooma. I found your blog when I was looking into how big I should allow surnames for a website that I'm designing (http://www.friendsatrest.com). I had originally thought 15 characters would be fine but after reading this I've made it up to 25 characters! Thanks for an interesting read. (BTW I still can't pronounce your surname though!). Cheers John.
I have a 3 character last name: Kim. I really want to change it to something different when I get married as a young adult. I won't regret it tbh.
i have a short surname: Kim.
You are still lucky man.......I have got a Surname which is more than 32 letters ( Including Space in between)// ;) My bad days started when Indian government started computerizing passports..which has only factored 32 letters for asurname ..As if now my passport and my US B1 visas contain a truncated version..
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