What's in the name?

If you have a big name like what I have, you would have probably faced problems when you tried to introduce yourself in a social gathering, especially if the people who have gathered for a social meeting were from different parts of the world.

Some people call me as Jam, while some prefer to call me as Ramanujam. On official occasions, I address myself as Srinivasa.

Today, while I was about to introduce myself as Jam to a new friend of mine I met at the Friday Afternoon Club, a friend of mine found me from the crowd, walked towards us and said "Hey Srinivasa! Good to see you again after two years", shaking my hands.

"Well, you can call me as Srinivasa or Ramanujam or in short, Jam", I told my new friend. "I'm sorry, I will probably remember Jam, but not any of your other names", he smiled apologetically.

When I introduce myself as Jam, some people would ask me to repeat it twice to make sure they got it right. To them, I would say, "Yes, you got that right. It's like bun butter jam" with a smile. While some people would assume they got it right and later call me as Jim or Gem.

People from outside India often times find it difficult to pronounce my name, much like the way I find with their names. Recently, I had to talk to a mobile company's customer care representative to change my mobile plan. After so much effort in trying to pronounce my name, the customer care representative asked me to spell it out so that she can type it in her database. As soon as I finished spelling the first half of my first name, I did not offer the representative to note down the second half. It took almost five minutes for her to get the first half and we haven't even started working towards the main issue of changing my mobile plan!

After fifteen minutes, the customer care representative said she had changed my mobile plan successfully. "You can visit our website to know about the new plan details", she added. After I hung up my call, curiosity got into me and made me log in to their website. 

I was amused when I saw the website welcoming me as FRINI DAFA! Though I wanted to correct my name, there was no option to edit my account. "After all, what's in the name?", thinking that way, I consoled myself.