Sowmya padum padu !

Indha Sowmya padara padu irukke......no, no, not me, like amma says enna padutha innorthar porandhu varanum (get her double-meaning ?)....I am talking about my poor name.....

There are quite a few desi versions - Soumya, Sowmiya, Soumiya none of which I like mainly because its not ''my'' name, I have grumbled about this before. The trouble was only with people misspelling my name then and then, I came to Germany.....and Sowmya became Sonja !

Sonja (j is pronounced as y here) is a very familiar name here and since ''y'' in German is pronounced with the ''u'' sound, calling someone ''sowmua'' is quite difficult, so people usually take the easier alternative....well, I made my peace with it.

Then someone realised that Sonja was not my name (phew...momentary...) and attempted to use my real name, hence was born Somya and her little offspring, Somi (like I said, momentary).

Well, its not over yet, there was another surprise in store for me - even desis cannot get my name right !! How so ? When I grew up, I thought every third girl was named Sowmya. Some north Indians call me Somina, Somayya and I am thinking ''how, how, how ! Isn't Sowmya a sanskrit word ??!''

I am so glad my last name is Gopal, everyone can say it (although some say Go Pal, as in a friend), spell it and since last name is more commonly used in Europe, its so easy for me to make telephonic reservations !

If you are wondering why I am writing such a completely vetti post, its because I want to get this out of my system before I shout at someone.....I usually think to myself - What's in a name ? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet (konjam over than, I know :D) but today I was called Soymya....and for the sake of my name, I have to draw the line somewhere, right ? After all, my parents did spend time choosing it, effort in registering it and money in an elaborate Namagaranam !

Statutory Warning: Comments calling me Semia or suggesting other funny versions of my name will be rejected.