"WHAT'S IN A NAME?"

"That which we call a rose...." and so on goes the phrase written by the great Shakespeare.Name is defined as the unique identity of an individual.Atleast that's what the wikipedia says.Sometimes this identity is not properly spelled or pronounced by a foreigner.

Whenever I call up a hardcore American customer service,when the teller on the other end asks for my name,I think 'here it comes...it's gonna be hell spelling out my name and making it sound like some phonic alphabet teaching!!!'...Only then I began to wonder,amuse and ask myself 'Is my name so tough to pronounce???' 

People eventually end up replacing the Vs in my name with Bs or Ts...making it sound chinese or east asian!!!Almost like re-birth or re-christening me.I wouldnt say it's only foreigners who re-christen me...many Indians have a problem in pronouncing names...like a tamilian will not get a marathi name right or a Punjabi cannot get a Malayali name right.

As a customary practice,bengalis who are in love with 'B',add a B to everything.Tamilians who are so religiously rooted to their birthplace and community,will always have it as their middle name (mostly!!!).Just like Mexicans in love with 'R' and 'Ha',the R in their names goes rrrrrrrrrr (more like mimicking the motor) and all the Js replaced by 'Ha'...like when I read a Mexican name for the first time I stressed on the Js(literally),sounding awfully funny!!! (Jalapeno is 'Ha'lapeno,i read 'J'alapeno)

When I finished reading Jhumpa Lahiri's UNACCUSTOMED EARTH,interestingly,I concluded that Italian people ,places and restaurants have the most difficult names EVER!!! Examples like....Giovanna (not sure which word to stress on),Piazza di San Cosimato,Hotel d'Inghilterra,Porta all'Arco,Piazza dei Priori....if ur not Italian,am sure just reading these names once must have been a roller coaster ride for you!!! But when you ask an Italian or a European or a Non-Indian,they would certainly find our names funny and tough.Likewise.We are "foreign" to each other.Saravana Bhavan and Shree Mithai might sound like some 13th century Indian names for them.Although we have westerners eating their hearts out in our restaurants and we Indians dont mind pigging out in their Pizzerias.

Since I have this endless craving for Italian food and pastries,am always inspired to watch Italian cooking shows by Giada de Launrentiis,am not sure of the pronunciation even now,even after watching the show and reading so much about her for more than a year.But who cares about the spelling/pronunciation...I love her cooking style and show hosting!!!  

French actresses with the most difficult names have fan following all over the globe.Like Audrey Tautou, Juliette Binoche and Catherine Deneuve,just like Aishwarya Rai garners foreign attention!!! So next time any foreigner asks ur name,just tell it,dont bother to stress on the Bs Ts or Vs...after all "What's in a name?"