Wednesday, June 14, 2006

What's in a Name?

This part of the blog is brought to you by my Client manager. Ooops...before you decide to confuse yourself that the one you are sitting before is an idiot box or a comp, let me clarify it. The whole germ for this blog was born when my client Manager addressed me.."HARRAASH". Holy Crap!!!

Now take a tortoise coil and revolve it before your eyes and travel back in time mahine. Yup...you guessed it. We are now switching on to the flashback mode. Long ago (not very long though) when i was born, my parents decided to christen me as HARIHARAN and did so. But I guess that they were clairvoyant enough to understand that I would be a singer good enough to invite all donkeys in neighbourhood and so decided not to mess up with Gazal ustad and playback singer Hariharan's name and so shortened it to Harish. To make matters little more complicated, my parents gave birth to my younger brother (which I don’t mind) and named him Girish (I do now). From all my relatives to my neighbors people had this huge confusion of Who is Harish and is he the elder or younger one.

As if the confusion was very less, my school principal included my grandpa's name with mine and there all hell broke loose. My name became CHELLAM HARISH NARAYANAN in all my official records..from mark sheets to Visa, my name has been mutilated.
Have you ever counted the number of blocks while entering your name in the passport or any other form? No? I did. Every time I saw some blocks to enter my name, i would growl and enter it as if i were signing my death warrant.

Infact I was asked this question in my interview
Interviewer:"So tell me your name?"
Me: "I am Chellam Harish Narayanan"
Interviewer: "No No. I am asking YOUR name"
Me (bulb glowing above):"Well, I am Harish. Chellam is my Grandfather and Narayanan is my father. (pause)You see, i am a literal sandwich between my pa and Grandpa."(Smiles from interviewer)

Apart from my name i have been addressed as the following
1. Haathi, Aalu - This was in North India when i looked like Yoko Zuna's desecdent
2. Ice - Usually kids of 2 or 3 years end up sounding COOL
3. Soda butti - Humiliation for a herediatry defect. Now wearing glasses is a fashion. Damn!
4. Takkali - My school senior referred me for my chubby cheeks.
5. Harris - Thank you ohmahazia Harris.
6. Harry Potter - Other than spectacles and lack of girlfriends, we are nowhere similar.
7. Mandu - College adaimozhi. Price I paid for my stupidness
8. Chellam - My teammates love irritating by calling me with this. Someone would yell "Chellam...inda error eppadi solve pandradu??" a la Prakash Raj. Sorry Grandpa :-)

Well...I have no qualms about being called anything as long as it sounds respectful. Ore oru kurai thaan. Enda ponnum vandu "Chellam...I Love you da" solla maatengra. :-) (Aasai dosai)

33 comments:

Venkatramanan said...

Chellam!

You missed one! You are also referred as Harry Topper ! But that was a humorous one! How is life at Hartford, Connecticut, United States?

Maaps!

Anonymous said...

Chellam!

You missed one! You are also referred as Harry Topper ! But that was a humorous one! How is life at Hartford, Connecticut, United States

prithz said...

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaha... Siripu thanga mudiyala... lol... That was wonderfully written...

And yes, i had this neighbour - 2 guys... One of their names was Prakash and the other was Prasad... except my dad and me, none of the people in our flat got their names rite... at times, when they fought and the whole flat could hear it, even their mother would call them by the wrong name and it would turn out to be a comedy show out of the fite... :)

Butterflies said...

aahaaa unga peyar vilakkam was too goood!!!!i would rather call u mugamoodi!

Mythreyee said...

LOL! chellam thaan comedy-a iruku (apologies 2 ur grandad!) hehe...

iv had my fair shares of mis-pronunciations n spelling-kolais! namma oor-kaaranuke namma paer solla varala-na vellai-kaaran epdi solluvaan?! i get called "mythrey" "mythri" "mythili" etc etc.. seri, enakku intha paer thaan amayala-nu paatha, i hav anoder name "vasudha".. atha ellaarum "yasodha"-nu koopadraanga.. vaazhkaiye veruthutten naan!

Sangeeta Ananth said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sangeeta Ananth said...

That was real good post. And thanks for reading mine.
I admire people who have the ability to laugh/joke at themselves or their names. :)

Anonymous said...

and what is your pet name at home?

nandoo said...

mandu.... is the one i like... evalo periya kootaama irunthaalum.. naan koochapadama mandu nu kooptu... neeyum ennadanu thirumbi paarkum pothu.. pakathula irukra )(*(&U* ellam sirikum... but we are used to it..

dei oru mukkiya peru sollama vitutiye
sollata ??
mandu &(*)&)O)_&)

shree said...

chellam, i love you. aasai - nan unga thathakku sonnen

Ramya said...

chellam is a lovely name,cha y u hate it.nalla comedy.aanaalum romba aasai dhaan unakku.USla endha ponnu unna chellam nu koopadra nu naan paarkaren.

Syam said...

I remember thakkali, every school and every college there would be one thakkali it seemes...funny one dudu :-)

Anonymous said...

dei nee oru vetti. Steve Sexton innoru vetti aalu. Unga rendu peru conversation oru blog vera. Chellam nee unakku ponnu thedrena ivlo kadha eludhama, "I'm single and Looking, Please love me" appadinu kotta eluthula pottirukanum. @shree unga thathakku love propose panni unna kalaichita mamu.

Ms Congeniality said...

Heyyyyyy are u a smile member?

Post was very funny :-)
Me too soda buddi(now of course contact lens is my saviour)

Anonymous said...

It seems that each of us have a soga kadhai behind our names !!!!

Nevertheless, the way you narrated is so hilarious!!

ambi said...

hahaaa, too good, hilarious..

ethavathu vellakaari solla poora paaru, chellam, i lov u nu..!

kuttichuvaru said...

nice post..... ennoda perum pala makkal-kku correct-aa solla varaathu!! athunaala ippo ellam yaaraavathu name padikka kashtapattu, 'how do u pronounce ur name' appdinnu ketta. naan udane, 'u can call me K' appdinnu sollidaren!!

Has to be me said...

LOL! It doesn't sound 'harsh' but funny indeed! :-D

Has to be me said...

Ammam, neenga Jim Carey fan ah? Asking that cos of ur title "The mask".

Aravind said...

chellamay chellam nee thanada.
Aana evalanu unnaku I LOVE U solvaalada?enaku therla da

Harish said...

@Ramanan
Adu romba kaalam munnadi...when i studied well. :-) Life kku enna pa..Its smooth and cool.

@Prithz
Wow. My mom never had this problem though.

@Subha
Mugamudi? Adhu chumma punai peyar thaanga

Harish said...

@Mythreyee
Unga spelling konjam kashtama irukku :-) I can imagine how people must have gambled with your name.

@Sangeetha
Well...adutavanga kindal pandradukku minnadi namalae mundi kiradu nalladhu illaya??

@Pras
Adutha gen ellamae initial thaan. CN, OC, PK. Kolai thaan ponga

Harish said...

@Chaitu
Oho..you asked it. I thought no one would. Sharp you are. It was ACHCHU. Seems Lord Krishna's pet name.:-)

@nandoo
Dei...censor panna vendiya peyara koopitu maanatha vaangathe da.

@Shree
Che...lucky thaatha...unlucky harish :-)

Harish said...

@Ramya
Kannu vekkadeenga. Erkanave onnum work out aaga maatengudu

@Syam
Adu correct thalai. Ella school collelayum oru thakkali, oru kosu kandippa irukkum

@jay
Correct thaan. Board onnu thaan baaki. Adayum vechchu maantha flight ethi anuppa vendityadhu thaan.

Harish said...

@Ms.Congeniality
Enna ippadi kaetuteenga. SMILE oda aarambatulerundu irukkura sila pala jeevna galla naanum oruttan

@Bindu
Peru thaan sogamma pochchu...ada mattavanga sandosha padra maadhiri solalame nu oru aasai thaan

@Ambi
Paavi...ippadi oru aasai verayaa???

Harish said...

@Kuttichuvaru
Idu matteru. Nee usaarana aalu thaan maamu

@has to be me (ennanga peru idu?)
Yup.Jim carrey fan ae thaan. Mask padatha ettanai dadavai paathe nu nyaabagam illa. Title oda reason http://mugamudi.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_mugamudi_archive.html
ingae A NEW JOURNEY la check panunga

Harish said...

@Ammu
naan ingayae than irundaen...neenga thaan kaana poiteenga. Its the other way round nu ninaikiraen. Ellarukkum mask potta thaan pudikidu. Unmaya sonna aapu adikiraanga :-( (personla experience)

@Arwind
irunda konja nenja nambikaya nee blower pottu anaichitta nanba. thanks a lot for that :-)

KC! said...

Prakashraj madhiri edhavadhu sadist ponnu chellam, I love you da sonna okva ungaluku? :))

Harish said...

Do you actually know such a girl who could do that? Let us meet and decide :-)

Just Jane said...

LOL! Aasai dosai appalam vadai wonly!! Good post! And our blog interfaces are almost identical and so was the post topic! :O Thanks for visiting my blog and I had a good time reading yours too!

Harish said...

@Chosen One
Yup...i too noticed it.
I too had a great time reading yours :-)

Has to be me said...

Eppodan unga comment parthen!
Yen paeru pidikalaya? :(
Cho chad!

My hubby also bayangara jim carey fan & like u he wud've also seen that movie hazar times & still enjoy it every time he watches it! I really wonder whats so fascinating abt JC?!

Harish said...

Well..chumma sonnaen :-)
Cmon yaar...that guy is greeeeeaaaat. I bet no one can make faces as he does. Also he is a good actor if you watch films as Truman Show. Well..double check if you hubby watches it for Carrey or Cameron Diaz :-) (with you around i hope he doesnt)