Whats in a name

As you guys already know... My name is Vinod... and my father's name
is Krishnadas. While most Mallus would be satisfied with this level of
information, the non mallus are already wondering what my surname is!
Well, I don't have a surname... I could add Nair or Menon at the end
of my name, but that's not really a surname. Ideally, if my mallu
roots could dictate my name, I would be just Vinod (maybe Vinoth!! I
actually had one mallu writing me an email calling me Vinoth!),
followed by my house name. But given that this type of naming (w.r.t
appending the house name) is no longer relevant (I mean Vinod
Block101D is hardly an ideal name) it leaves me with one field
(Surname) to fill in and a number of options to choose from... that's
always a fun scenario!

So, in my 10th standard form, I put in Krishnadas as my surname and
left my middle name blank. The supervisor called me out
Supervisor: "Why is this blank?"
Me: "I don't have a middle name"
"What's your father's name"
"Krishnadas"
"Oh, then it should be here... (pointing to the middle name field) not
there.. What is your surname then"
"Krishnadas"
"So, your father's name is Krishnadas Krishnadas??"
"No, its K Krishnadas"
"Whats K"
"Nothing, just K"
"Who the hell goes around with just 'K' for a name????"
"Its not his name.. its not like people would yell out to him 'hey K,
come here'"
"What is it then?"
"Its his house name"
"So whats his full name?"
"K Krishnadas"
By now the supervisor was sure I was trying to make her look like a
jackass.. so, angrily
"Put in whatever you want... just don't leave it blank!"
Happy about the little battle I had won, I put down my fathers name as
K. Cool name I thought. Just K.. Somehow it seems out of a 007 movie.
Agent K.

Now it's all well and good, me choosing my surname and what father's
name should be on the record. Trouble is, my sister chose differently!
So, as per records, our surnames and father's names don't exactly
match!

As if all this complication caused by lack of a surname wasn't enough,
we Nairs follow the matrilocal
system<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_matrilineal_or_matrilocal_societies>,
which means ideally, I should take my mother's house name after my own
name! Most Nairs abandoned this long back, coz when you are out of
Kerala, and provide different surnames for yourself and your father,
the clerk at the desk will put down his pen, think deeply for a
moment, shake his head ever so slightly and then look at you with
pity!

Coming back to adding house names into our names, its a wierd way to
merge your name and part of your postal address, and only a mallu
could have thought of it. Some other southie communities went
overboard with it and added village and district names as well,
landing up with names such as VVS Laxman. And I don't even want to
start about Sri Lankans!

We mallus are slowly discarding the house names but the mallu
fascination for house names never ceases. You know how you go to a
party and meet some one new.. You are like
"Hi I am Vinod"
"Hi! I'm Rajesh"
"Where do you work?"
"Oh I work at blah blah..."
and everything is happy.. hehehahahuhu
In a mallu scene, the first question you get after you announce your
name, is "Where is the house" and I'm like "Kalina" coz I am always
the smart wisecrack...and you should see the disappointment on them...
the fact that it wasn't immediately apparent to me that they were
asking for my house name (in Kerala) is so heartbreaking for them! The
next set of questions are mainly related to career and why you aren't
an MBA already... you get the drift.

All the confusion created notwithstanding, I love my name.. Krishnadas
sounds good as a surname and feels right. Its not the most common
surname you'd come across (unlike Nair or Menon) and plus it allowed
me to make that supervisor look like a jackass! (Evil laugh) :)

Sing.. sing.. Singapore!

I reached Singapore exactly a month back.. 20th June... It been a month... Seems to have just flown past... I remember on the 18th my boss briefing me and the other guys, telling us "Its going to be challenging..." The moment I got onto that Air India flight, I knew the challenge had begun. I entered the flight to find an old woman dressed in a sari, glaring at  me.. I scoffed at her, thinking Hmph! Grumpy Fliers... I looked around to find that there were more wearing similar saris.... All displaying varied levels of hostility.. I feared the woman in the sari would soon make me feel very sorry..

The in flight food was awesome and the flight was quite good actually... the service was not bad... Yes, I got no response when I pressed the Call Flight Attendant button, but at least they didn't hit me when I asked for a glass of juice or give me disapproving looks when I took a beer! The entertainment was well... Ajab Prem ki Gazab kahani, one episode from some English sitcom, and one episode of Tom and Jerry.. All in loop mode.. Of course, you could also listen to a single song for 5 hours and 20 minutes on the in flight radio, but the fake enthusiasm of the RJ had me reaching for the air sickness bag.

So here I am... in Singapore, missing family and friends but learning a lot about living in a foreign land. Its fun, but it leaves me with very little time to blog.. in fact I call home barely once in 3 days or so... The entire week whooshes past... But unlike in Mumbai, my weeks here are very structured.

My week is split into 3 parts -
Mon thru Friday - This part of the week is where I make it increasingly difficult for me to reach my bed. I do this by throwing around chargers, cups, chopsticks, headphones, cameras, pouches, clothes, hangers and basically any movable object. Soon the unswept floor is barely visible and by Friday night, getting to bed is a tricky task - a tiring exercise as I do combos of long jump, high jump... everything except the pole vault. Friday nights I sleep out of exhaustion.


Saturday - This day I become Mr. Tourist. I dig out my denims, cap and camera from underneath a pile of clothes and spend the day admiring Singapore, clicking pictures and having a blast.. I generally get home well past midnight and then stay up all night putting up pictures on FB!

Sunday -I wake up late... and not my daddy late (which is 8:15 BTW!) but L-A-T-E! 12:30 or 1 in the afternoon... Late start aside, this is by far the most tiring day of the week coz after cooking, cleaning the house and washing clothes, I need to tidy up my room and this is generally around the day of the week I miss mom the most.

But I am enjoying this a lot... Living as a bachelor is something every guys must do... Its just so much fun! And Singapore is easily amongst the best places to work in... Yes, Singapore is teaching me a lot of things.. I learn each day, the work is interesting and challenging, and I am having the time of my life roaming its streets... I learnt how the eat with chopsticks, how to make dal, and that mom does sooo much at home that I never realized..


But despite the joys of Singapore, I generally don't sleep very happy. There is a face I see which wets my eyes, I see that face each time I close my eyes, I dream of that face when I sleep, I even think of that face when I work... Nano... clinging to me on her birthday... fear in her eyes that mama will leave her side if she lets go.. Her face... a mixture of joy, excitement and happiness on seeing me, and an unknown fear.. Her face...