Name-onic..
Sunday, June 23, 2013 at 6:10PM If you have a name that is not so common in the country you live in and anything more than a Jack or John is given up as "too complicated", you tend to start giving folks a mnemonic just so they can get your name right.. at least the spelling part!
This moring there was a yoga teacher who taught class. Apparently she has been teaching at BYSJ for a few months but this was my second time attending her class. Asked her for her name after class and she said "what is your name?"
So I gave her the mnemonic "It is Sundar. Sunday with an R" and she smiled. The real issue is that most of the folks who are told "Sunday with an R", forget the R part and call me Sunday which is worse!
Flashback to the early nineties..
Having spent precious rupees just spelling out SUNDARARAMAN NARAYANAN to various university admins to find out that they cannot find my file or GRE or TOEFL scores and going over the name over and over again, a strategy was deviced.
Had gotten tired of making AT&T richer and my parents poorer by the day..
Thanks to one of those admins who recomemnded she asked me to spell my name on the ISD call with a word for each letter. She had asked me "N as in Nancy or M as in Mary?" and I went "Voila! that is it. I can now spell my name to these folks who are unfamiliar with long names and get it right the first time!"
Still remember talking to Judy Trachtman who was our Admin head at Drexel shortly before I came to the USA for the first time to check on something about my I-20.. She goes "Spell your name for me kid!" and I go "Sugar Uncle Navy Dates Alpha Rainbow..." and she just started laughing and said "Oh my. You are special. What a colorful picture we paint!" Will always cherish conversations with Judy.. again, I am digressing..
Coming back to the name.. Sundararaman was too complicated for anyone. So came down to Sundar and my thesis advisor asked me "Can I just call you Sun?" and my jaw dropped. Not because of the additional 50% discount that was being asked of my name that had already been cut in half... but because there was a Chinese dude by the same name in the department roster!
That is when I came up with "My name is Sundar. Sunday with a Rainbow at the end!"
The ones that do get it right based on that mnemonic say it "Sondaar" which is as close to it as they will ever get. The short sound for the u and the a?
Have given up on it, a long time ago!
You should hear Jr. and the little one introduce me to non-desis.. they introduce me as "my dad soondaar!"
I laugh on the outside...
Reader Comments (2)
Ah! Names.... I have truck load of stories to say about this. Anyway after 14 years in US only us Indians let others mis pronounce our names. Anyother country(France- particularly) don't let others short their names.
Reason for my comment is, have you tried printing your pictures in Metal(Aluminium)? If you haven't tried, please try it out. It comes out awesome! I just did few last week(though expensive) from Walgreens and it came out very good. I started this hobby of taking kids pictures in natural setting as opposed to posing. They make good pieces for decorating rooms. I have done canvas priniting, that came out good. Now the Aluminium printing in 10*13 came out very well with my crappy camera(i sent you an email with a picture of my kids). I'm sure it would turn out great with your fancy camera. I ordered it thru walgreens. Though it is little expensive, it is well worth it!
have tried printing on metal before using a company called Alumnyze. Had a groupon for it for a 11x13.. have a nice metal print of the kissing hummingbirds at home.
:)