The Long and Short of It!

Talk about short names, I have my parents to thank for naming me Suri. Legend has it that I was born on a Sunday and hence the name, but then I was born after the sunset, 7 pm to be exact, and hence my color!!! Lucky for me, my wife seemed to like a completely contrasting companion, so here I am happily married for 8 something years, touchwood...

Not to talk so fast and be so content, there is a darker side of the story (just like my birth time and colour). My official name is Lakshminarayan Balasubramaniam (as you can clearly see). The tough part is I live in the USA. Tough, not for me, but for the people of this country. One of my American friends says my name is worth 5000 points on Scrabble.

Where it starts get a tad frustrating is when I get on the phone with the phone company or the insurance company. Thanks for calling AAA, could I have your first name please? And then I have to go L for Larry, A for Alpha, K for Kilo, S for Sam, H for Hotel, M for Mike, I for India, N for Nancy, A for Alpha, R for River, A for Alpha, Y for Yellow, A for Alpha and N for Nancy. Is that cool? No hold on. Some of these customer service representatives miss something I said and then I have to repeat it from where they lost out.

And they don't stop with that, they are a determined lot, you see. Thank you sir, may I have your last name please. So this time I have to warn them. It is equally long, so this time I go,,,,, B for Boy,,,,, A for Alpha,,,,, L for Larry,,,,, A for Alpha,,,,, S for Sam,,,,, U for Unifom,,,,, B for Boy,,,,, R for River,,,,, A for Alpha,,,,, M for Mike,,,,, A for Alpha,,,,, N for Nancy,,,,, I for India,,,,, A for Alpha,,,,, M for Mike..... Did you get that? I think I did and how may I help you today. So to get me started on the phone with anyone here in the US, it takes me quite a while...

But you know the utility part of this rigmarole? My son started learning to count with the question, How many As are there in Appa's name?

It's 848 AM on the morning of Thursday 9 April 09 and it's a bright sunny morning in Mt Laurel, New Jersey.

Whoever you are reading this, I hope your day is as Sunny and Bright too!!!

L for Larry... I mean, Suri