Aniruddha M S

Oh, the advantages of having a unique name, in addition to it starting with the letter A ! (at least it was, in the mid-80s). Not only do you get to finish your lab exams earlier than anyone and subsequently frighten them with all kind of impending doom at the hands of ill meaning ‘Externals’, you get to have predictable and uncomplicated mail ids, an uncanny contribution to a successfully networked life both on the gmail/yahoo front and the office domain id front.

Search the length, breadth and height of my company and you will find only one aniruddha. Hence, not even a single suffix is required, like say, a 85, a 1234 or even a 1 ! And any Aniruddha who finished his ms after 2006 has found to his dismay that he cannot advertise that fact through his gmail id.

This random thought of nonsense occured when I was in the process of creating a gmail id for a colleague. Gmail almost laughed at me when I asked for the mail id to be Lohith; not even a Lohith 1 or Lohith 2 (and so on) worked. Finally, we came to a bargain at 14Lohith (and no,Lohith 14 was not available). Do not ask me about the password, Lohith san will not be happy if I put it up on a blog !

Hence, all you future parents-to-be, please think about the repercussions of naming your children with such run-of-the-mill modern day cliches like Karthik/Rahul/Vinay or Divya/Shwetha/Shruthi/Shilpa. Instead, let your imagination run wild and free, think of beauties like Aapatbandhava/Babruvahana/Chandrahasa/or even Chandamama for the unfairer sex, wonders like Anireekshita(oops!)/ Brahmakumari/Champakali for the fairer ones. Apart from the benefit of breaking the ice (and a few bones in the rib while laughing) when introduced to people, these names will also contribute their mite to the environment by reducing the amount of ink wasted(or the battery life on mobiles) when noting down all those chamak mail ids!

Cya, folks!