My name is Maryann Theresa
Taylor, which is a terribly complicated name to have, when you're living in India. (In case
you’re curious, this is how I got my
name). Mostly nobody ever gets my name right and I have enormous respect for those who DO pronounce my name right at the first go. The most usual and
annoying reaction I get after I tell someone my name, or when someone reads my
name on a form is “Hain?” which makes me want to slap them across their faces.
I mean come on, let’s be polite here, how about “I’m sorry, but I didn't get
that? But no, they must ridicule me!
Here is how people usually
behave around my name:
a) Hain?
b) Mispronounce it
without any apologies whatsoever.
c) Mispronounce it
and THINK they've pronounced it right (you need to see the smug look on the
faces of this category )
d) Rush through it
so fast so they think I didn't notice they mispronounced it.
e) This category
only gives me a blank look.
f) The most annoying
category, who ask “But what does your name mean?” At them I want to scream “It
doesn't MEAN anything you idiot. Why must a name HAVE any meaning for that
matter? It’s a Biblical name okay, now go home, Google it if you're so curious and never ask people
such questions!”
g) The most polite
and my favourite (though only a handful of them exist), “I’m sorry, but how do
you pronounce your name?” (See, there’s
a nicer way of doing these things)
Since I was little, my name
has been twisted and mispronounced and misspelled in all ways imaginable, from Marriyan to
Marrayum, to Marry, to Narayan (I received mail on the last name for two years.
I’m amazed they got the last name right). I went through a stage I hated my
name and hated my parents even more for giving me this long winded name in the first place.
I understand they wanted to give me a “Christian” name, but why such a flowery
name?
I've gone through many different phases with my name. As a little girl I didn't know better and responded to anything
that vaguely sounded like my name. But as I grew older my name, my elaborate,
long winded, British sounding name became a source of constant awkwardness and
agony. By then my name had been mutilated so terribly and at times beyond
recognition, that as a teenager I seriously considered changing my name. I
couldn't bear having my name mispronounced anymore and since a classmate of
mine had changed her name officially (she had a very, very strange name,
I’ll be honest) , it gave me hope that I could change my name too. But then I
couldn't think of a better name I could replace mine with and soon, like the
many ideas you have as a teenager, this idea was dropped.
I would longingly look at my friends who had
regular and simple names like Neha and Pooja and Sonia and wish I had an
equally inconspicuous name like theirs. Names which everyone got the first time
and names they didn't need to spell out or pronounce for people. Since I was so
used to the mispronunciation by then, I started mispronouncing my name as well,
just so I didn't cringe when someone else did. It hurt me each time I did it,
but I still did. Thankfully, this phase didn't last too long.
But the embarrassment aside, I soon discovered
how much fun it was giving people fake names, where I could afford to; like
when booking a prepaid auto, or putting my name down for a restaurant
reservation or even when filling up a feedback form given to me at the end of
the meal by aforementioned restaurant.
By the time I went to
college, I shortened my name to Anna. “My name’s Maryann, but you can call me
Anna” was how I had begun to introduce myself. Anna was amazing, Anna was
shorter, Anna was easier, Anna was difficult to mispronounce and almost
everyone got Anna right. Wow, why didn't I think of this earlier! Finally, I
began feeling good about my name.
My name also has a tendency
to mislead people who've never met me into thinking that I’m not Indian. On my
first day at my first job, I was met by sorry looking faces of my male
colleagues, who after having read my name on the new joinee list, as they later
told me, were under the impression that a “white chick” was coming to work in
the Delhi
office. Sorry boys, but I’m brown! Even in my current organisation a guy from
accounts who’d never met me went to HR inquiring about me saying “Ek humare
office mein woh bhi toh hai jo Indian nahin hai”.
My last name also misguides
people into believing that I am indeed a tailor. I once went to a bank where
the lady after taking my cheque from me excitedly declared “Mujhe aap hi se
kaam tha!” the puzzled look on my face was followed by her asking me “Aap
simple suit ka kitna charge karte hai?” Two buxom Punjabi ladies looking for a
“tailor” in Connaught Place
were mistakenly directed to my father (who worked in an airline, but not as a
tailor) by the office guard. The ladies dumped some fabric on my father’s desk
ordering him “Humara size le lo”. My embarrassed father’s colleagues later ribbed him for
not having “seized” the opportunity!
By the time I was older and had began working;
I had shaken off the awkwardness surrounding my name and had begun to give
people quick little tutorials to help them pronounce my name right. “It’s Mei
re ann, three syllables and you need to roll the r”. That not many were amused
with my forced attempts to make them enunciate my name right is a story for
another day.
It’s not easy having a
strange and long name; people are easily confused and make no attempt to hide
their impatience. It is also very annoying to keep spelling out your name for
people and for them to still get it wrong. But more than anything, having such
a long name isn't practical. Each time I’m filling up a form, a little voice inside
my head is sarcastically singing “You’re going to run out of space”, which, who
am I kidding, I do! But passport forms, those are different; those are kinder
than other forms and are thankfully accommodating of long names. This is
probably the only thing I’m grateful to the Government of India for, passport
forms where I never run out of space while filling up my name.
But there are positives too
with a name like mine. A name like this means it’s easy to get a
straightforward Twitter handle and e mail ID, without having to add any
confusing underscores or numerals in between. Also by the awkward way a voice
pronounces my name over the phone, I know it’s someone trying to sell me a
credit card and so I hang up immediately.
Despite all that I have gone thought with my name, I have begun to love it, it’s taken me a while, but I have and it's nice for a change when sometimes, someone (very occasionally though) tells me what a pretty name it is.
Despite all that I have gone thought with my name, I have begun to love it, it’s taken me a while, but I have and it's nice for a change when sometimes, someone (very occasionally though) tells me what a pretty name it is.
P.S: Here is a hilarious link
on people with difficult names, shared by Diptakirti, a friend who shares a similar
experience with his name as well.
I can't find the link !
ReplyDeleteWhich link?
ReplyDeleteWell it definetly is a beautiful name and suits u well..Dont think any other name will do justice to ur personality.. totally love reading what u write..
ReplyDelete