What's in a name???

Well over the past ____ years (now a lady ain't supposed to give out her age), I've faced such a lot of trouble with my name that I felt it totally deserved a post... so here goes...

Well as long as I was in Calcutta not too many hassles with my name coz the surname or rather its spelling wasn't too uncommon or perhaps people didn't try to use their brains too much.

Anyways rewind to my initial few days at St. Mary's School, Pune. Chemistry class and our teacher Mrs. Dhawan decided to ask some questions before starting off with the lesson. She looked at me and said "Yes Abhilasha, tell me....." (Excuse me for not remembering the question... yeah I got an elephantine memory but I happened to Shift+Delete those details). Anyways, getting back to the topic at hand, since I did not know the girls in my class I had no idea that I was supposed to stand up and answer. I sat and started looking around, wondering why no one had stood up while the teacher was glaring at me. Then she bellowed "Yes you girl." Oh boy! I stood up and meekly said "Mam, my name is Rupsha." and then proceeded to give the answer. Here's another 1... this one at a History class conducted by dear Miss Khemlani. Here I am christened again. She wanted someone to come n read out the lesson... So she looks at me and says "Vipasha, why don't you come and read it out?" Ok.. history repeats itself.. but this fast? With a sense of deja vu I start looking around and wonder "Is my name this difficult to remember? Uncommon may be... but still!!!"

Well ICSE done... I got a lovely marksheet with no errors and went on to join Laxmanrao Apte Jr College for the 2 years leading up to HSC. Board exams approach and we receive our "Hall tickets". My name is called out, I go and receive mine, look down and give out a cry in dismay... My surname had been misspelt.. I was supposedly Rupsha ChOudhAri. I go upto the office and they cross check records and set it right, as in put a stamp and hand write the surname with correct spelling. Anyways, exams get over and it's time for the results. I had made it to the Merit List and was very excited. Amidst a ceremony featuring reporters et al, we receive our marksheets and once again, my surname had been misspelt. Baaah! Took close to 10 days to sort out that pickle with me having to convince the people at the board that I indeed knew the spelling of my own name.... Aah almost forgot! Same story for my college leaving certificate too with people arguing with me that the spelling I was telling was wrong. What the hell!

Well my history of messed up surname continued through engineering. First Year Sem 1 marksheet.. and I am told I am Rupsha ChaudhAri. Whoa! And soon I am at the receiving end of jokes as people start asking me when I married a friend Umesh Chaudhari... Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! My smart a** friend Rohan told me that perhaps I really didn't know the spelling of my surname. Anyways, soon after in all competitions etc I started being given certificates with strange spellings... and I stopped correcting them. It was indeed a futile attempt. As long as the gender was right and the name came somewhat close to my actual name, I was happy.

Engineering continued smoothly namewise as marksheets were issued correctly sem after sem (of course I had other woes then with incorrect marks but may be more on that later). In my BE, I got placed with IBM and a few months later I receive my appointment letter. It was addressed to Miss Rupsha ChOudhAri. I let out a sound of sheer frustration but felt I was better off than my male friend Apoorva who had received a letter for Miss Apoorva Mehra and another female friend who's offer letter was addressed to Mr. Nishigandha Mahajan. Oh boy!!! So I sent the signed letter back adding a note about the incorrect spelling.

Another time I had gone for some competition with a friend. And while my partner was filling out the form, he first put down his own name and then when it came to my name, he wrote down my first name and his surname. I was like "Whoa! What are you doing dude?" He gave an embarrassed smile and scratched it out and started writing out what I thought was my surname. He lifted his pen and voila! It was his surname again. By that time he was so very embarrassed that he was burying his head under the table while mumbling that he was very sleepy and his brain had switched off. Finally gave him the benefit of doubt, took the form, used the whitener liberally and wrote my name myself... with no errors this time.

But things were not to end here. A few months later I got another letter from IBM, again with the same spelling. Again a note... and hoped it would work this time. In July I joined IBM and received my Lotus Notes ID... (Shishir n Siddharth.. not revealing the id here so don't get excited). Basically it was derived from Rupsha Choudhari. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! Soon after I realised that the payroll database also had the same entry. Now this was clearly not good since this meant I would not get any money. And that happened... July went by with no money being deposited in my bank account. :-( Finally after a month of following up with HR people and several others I got the issue sorted out.

Meanwhile my BE result was declared and we received our college leaving certificates. Mine was ChOudhAri... Popular spelling I must say! No wonder Rohan tells me to change it to that permanently. I went down to the Students' Section to battle this out. The lady told me that this was the entry in the college register. She pulled it out and it was ChOudhUri.. ok... 1 letter down 1 to go. So she meekly agreed to correct only 1 character. Now I told her it was A and not O. So she told me this was what it was in the earlier college leaving certificate. I said "Not possible ".. fyi.. for those who have forgotten the earlier part, I had already gotten that rectified 4 years ago. So from amidst a faaaaat bundle of college/school leaving certificates mine was pulled out n Voila! It was ChAudhUri. So reluctantly she rectified her mistake with a whitener and I came out with a triumphant smile.

Alas this was not the end of it.... This time a new hassle. After having used my passport for 7 long years, which even included a trip to Japan and exams like GRE, I realise that according to my passport I had no surname... Yes.. the surname field was blank and my first name was Rupsha Chaudhuri. Took another round of running around to fix that 1....

That's the sob story of my name upto now... Will update this story as n when I have more messes to report. Till then Cheerio!