I am a malayali
who was brought up in Maharashtra. I grew up amidst the exposure of both the
cultures right from my childhood. That’s
why before starting my school life, I was already aware of three languages-Malayalam,
my mother tongue, Marathi, my favourite language and Hindi(thanks to Shaktimaan and the
other Hindi tv shows I binge watched!).
So, going to school made me realize that something about me was quite awkward to the others- my
name MANU MOHAN .I had no surname. All my friends had surnames, but why didn’t
I? I never got it back then. My mother told me that we are Keralites and
surnames do not really play any role in our society .There I was the surname
less weirdo. Quite frankly, I am often bombarded with questions like, ”Is your
name for real?”,”Is MANU your first name or MOHAN?”(btw my father’s name is
Mohan) and blah blah blah. I know Manu is a boy’s name. My parents named me
after a boy because I have an elder sister .So they had already decided in
advance that they’d name their second child as Manu-be it a boy or a girl. All of you might have guessed by now that
I’m going to babble about my name in this post. Yes, you are absolutely right!
“What’s in a
name?” is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous lines. Umm, Mr.Shakespeare,
I disagree with you. There are a lot of
things that a person with an awkward name in the society could relate to. For
instance, my name in my voter’s card is Manu Mohan Mohan. My Aadhar
card name is Manu Mohan G.(Again why should my father’s
initial G be included in my Aadhar card??) I also remember running errands to
the university for getting a correction in my name. Some of the forms I fill
get rejected because I leave the surname box blank. In fact, some people just enter my gender as
male in forms, as soon as they see my name. So “What’s in a name?” doesn’t
really imply to me. All these incidents made me loathe my name at one point in
life.
I remember
complaining to my parents and blaming them for naming me so. My mother
responded by asking me a plain simple question, ”Have you ever come across a
girl named Manu?” I never understood her logic. Now I understand what she
meant. She wanted my name to be unique and stand out from the crowd. What’s so
wrong with my name anyway? Manu was the first man on earth according to
Hinduism and so was it Rani Laxmibai’s nickname(also it’s an abbreviation for
Manchester United..!!)
Today, I am really comfortable with my
name. I would be ever thankful to my mother for giving me such a beautiful and
unique name. If I ever come across a person who finds me being surname less
bizarre, then I really pity that person. Ok. Fine. Maybe you’ve never met a person from South
India to understand our naming system. But I bet you sure as hell must have
watched cricket. Haven’t you come across names like VVS Laxman , S Sreesanth or
Ravichandran Ashwin? Haven’t you ever
wondered what their surnames were? Well, ignorance is not bliss.
This one
goes out to all the malayalis out there. If you think my name is weird owing to
the fact that I am a girl, then well, news flash-I am MANU and I am a girl. Go
ahead and make fun of my name. Atleast
you’ll always remember me.
I don’t
mean to impose anything on this post against the people who don’t understand my
name.
It’s just that sometimes some people sideline me and set me apart because of
this. Anyway I’m proud of my name and would never in a thousand years consider
changing it.
I think
today I have written an exceptionally long post. But hey, I was just pouring my
heart out. By the way thanks for reading this. I would appreciate your feedback
(even if it’s negative) and take it as a part of constructive criticism. Have a
nice day ahead!
