Sunday, July 13, 2008

What's in a name?

From:
Sridinats,
Random Blaber'er',
New Delhi, India

To:
Mr William Shakespeare,
Stratford upon Avon,
United Kingdom

13th July,2008

Subject: What's in a name?

Dear Sir,

In the year 1595 when you wrote the now famous novel Romeo and Juliet, a protaganist in the novel made an important statement-:

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

Please forgive me but I think it is important for me to tell you that in the Year 2008 there's a lot in a name. If I were to make the mistake of calling Rose by some other name, she might never ever come back to me. Worse still, what I did today shall continue to embarrass me for a long long time. The people who coined the wonderful term Faux Pas(faw pah) would have had my situation in mind while giving the word it's meaning.

As I went to a friends place to attend a merry get together, I could not for the life of me remember the name of a wonderful lady who had come to the party with Aastha. What made the matter worse was the fact that she remembered me(eeks). The issue finally ended with me having to cajole her into revealing her name. Don't think I would be hearing from her anytime in the near future.

Terrible eh? The trouble was not over. A little while later I gave another friend a whole new identity because I could not recall his actual name. Of course, this time around someone else pretty much "threw me to the wolves" by not correcting my mistake, before I actually publicly humiliated myself.

-------

A few years ago on a drive to Niagra Falls from D.C. we had stopped over at Burger King for a quick bite. My uncle tipped the lady there and also thanked her by name for her wonderful service. I was impressed. After all it is always cool to thank someone like that and all that he did was give the badge on her shirt a quick glance before thanking her.That is what revealed her name. Pretty Cool,I thought.

As we resumed our journey towards the border we stopped at a toll plaza. A very pretty woman at the toll booth returned the change and I employed the same trick as above, did the needful and said "Thank You Nysta". Instead of getting a warm/flirty/lovely smile in return all I got was a weird look. Almost as if she was trying to say "Who the hell is this jerk?"

For the rest of the journey my cousins could not stop laughing and I just could not understand where I went wrong. When enlightened, I could not stop laughing myself, I was a jerk.The lady at the toll booth had a badge on her shirt but it did not have her name on it. NYSTA, was not an exotic name, but an abbreviation for New York State Thruway Authority. Don't think I am gonna here from her either.

I apologise to Anupriya, Anchit and to whoever was representing the N.Y.S.T.A. that day and to you WIilliam I say, trust me, there's a LOT in a name.

Warm Regards

Sridinats

5 comments:

Unknown said...

birthdays are even tougher to remember! :P

btw i still don't know which one is yours - i'm sticking my neck out and putting it down as 6th on my calendar. hope i aint 3 days early.

Rupali Tyagi said...

"Thankyou Nysta" :) :)
I might sound silly but was just thinking what if you were born in U.S and visited India..Noida may b..??
.
.
.
You would have said "Thankyou Noida!"(New okhla industrial developement area) ;)

Anonymous said...

come to think of it...the staff out here would in the worst case scenario have NA written on their badge for Noida Authority and surely I can figure outsomeone who looks Indian couldnt possibly have a Chinese name!

Anonymous said...

oye. u cnt blame me..i told u he goes by the name palta....aint ma fault..

Anonymous said...

hehe...i am bad wit faces though...