Most people in the US can't (or think they can't) pronounce Indian names. Anyway, whether that's true or not, names of Indians in the US get modified (no, this is not a political statement, even if it contains the word 'Modi' hidden somewhere).
So the names of people change, usually to a short and easier-on-the-tongue version. I used to teach at the Clemson University as a grad student, and my name Rajendra was shortened to Raj, which was similar to Rog (for Roger) and therefore easy to say. A friend in California, Kiran, shortened his to Ken, which proved useful to him in business- he was into real estate broking. He also converted his last name from Kenjale to Jolly, which I think is a stroke of genius.
In academics, we now have several Indians at US universities, who have adopted a different strategy. They use a name twice, one in a shortened form and another in the original. So you have a Nat Natarajan, or a Das Narayan Das (who is a friend, incidentally, a prof at Harvard), or Rajan Varadarajan (not sure if his is of this form, because Rajan could be a name too). I think this is an interesting way to do it, from a marketing point of view. Remember, there is an adage in advertising that the more you repeat your (product) name, the better it is for people to remember. So it is with people's names.
So I henceforth will rename myself as Kar Nargundkar. By the way, that does not rhyme with Car.
So the names of people change, usually to a short and easier-on-the-tongue version. I used to teach at the Clemson University as a grad student, and my name Rajendra was shortened to Raj, which was similar to Rog (for Roger) and therefore easy to say. A friend in California, Kiran, shortened his to Ken, which proved useful to him in business- he was into real estate broking. He also converted his last name from Kenjale to Jolly, which I think is a stroke of genius.
In academics, we now have several Indians at US universities, who have adopted a different strategy. They use a name twice, one in a shortened form and another in the original. So you have a Nat Natarajan, or a Das Narayan Das (who is a friend, incidentally, a prof at Harvard), or Rajan Varadarajan (not sure if his is of this form, because Rajan could be a name too). I think this is an interesting way to do it, from a marketing point of view. Remember, there is an adage in advertising that the more you repeat your (product) name, the better it is for people to remember. So it is with people's names.
So I henceforth will rename myself as Kar Nargundkar. By the way, that does not rhyme with Car.
3 comments:
very hilarious ..enjoyed it..the Ken Jolly is superb!
fpr some reason Ek Chatur Nar Kar ke ..comes to mind
Last name Kenjale >> to Ken-Jale >> to Ken-Jolly, automatically without efforts, especially from all the white female dance partners (they were all white and blonds, no Chinese or Indians) in my CW (Country Western) dance class, I was the one of the ONLY 5 male student dancers and 25 hungry HOT`blooded Texan Cowgirls (many appeared in the Playboy magazine, featuring 'girls of the SouthWest conference), so name change was easy, I did have to join classes for 1 credit each in Line Dancing, Swing, and Ballroom dancing just to make sure my name change sticks..(Studing for masters in Engineering was a breeze, just needed dance lessons for social skills)...IT DID...Kiran (former)..HaHa... just call me Ken-Jolly..
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