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When my parents gave my name in late 80’s, they would have thought they are setting a new trend in the neighborhood. In the street of Sriram and Thothary, there we were. Suresh and Bragadeesh. Thanks to a famous film star, my brother’s name didn’t suffer the fate of my name.

I don’t know why people found it difficult to spell my name or pronounce my name correctly. When the leader of the classroom noted my name in the board for mischief and over talking, it was always “Bragadesh”. It missed and ‘e’. When my friends introduced to their parents, I always had to repeat my name twice.

baby-names

Friend: “Hi Ma! This is my friend”

Friend’s Mom : “Come here son! Take the sweets! What is your name?”

Me: “Bragadeesh Aunty”

Friend’s Mom : “Jagadeesh?”

Me : “No Aunty. Bragadeesh. My name starts with B. The one which comes after A”

Sometimes people get pissed of when I give this extra information. I had to because, when my name was recorded in our ration card for first time it was spelled “Pragadeesh Brasanna”. My father had to take countless trips to the government office to change it. By 2001, there was the census taken and old government school teachers came to survey the list of people in house.

The person gladly noted my name as Pradeep. I have no clue how he got that idea because both my names, don’t even come near Pradeep. I was a lone struggler then. My class had people like Satish, Balaji and the variants and their names were easy to recognize. But now this generation parents are taking the innovation to another complete level.

People sometime want to name their kids with name which starts from letter A, so that he will be first in school attendance. Some people even search names which necessitate double As. Just to make sure you know. What they don’t know is they are going to get earful from their teenage son, who sits in front bench for all his exams unable to help of get help from his class mates during exams.

Some people want to keep their great grandfather name to their kids, and they want it to start from the letter which the astrologer suggested after looking at the time of birth of kid which is also not old fashioned as their kid should not be teased at school. It is particularly hard when the name of the great grandfather is “Sambasiva Karunya Moorthy”

Today I went to beach with two of my friends. One of my friend’s colleague also came to beach with the family. The girl in our group asked the name of the kid.

She : “Sweety Pie! What is your name?”

Kid : “Krishanth”

The beach was loud and we were standing near the water. So my friend wanted to confirm again

She “Prashanth?”

Kid : “No! Krishanth. It starts with K”

There I saw a kid who will have to go through all I went through. I somehow pacified myself as he would not be alone at least.