What's In A Name?

What's in a name? That which we call a rose,

By any other name would smell as sweet;

All my life I have been correcting people when they misspell/mispronounce my name be it strangers, friends, teachers, colleagues, managers, clients. I don't understand why people have to add an extra a, e or b to my name. I think I must have heard all the possible permutations and combinations of it after adding these extra characters. Should I be annoyed or concerned that they are probably dyslexic? I think I should start writing the phonetic spelling in brackets along with my name. Though I am sure not many people would be able to understand that anyway.

I don't know if it's childish to have strong feelings about one's name. I may get tired writing my full name on forms or any other document (although it may not be as long as some south-Indian names are, still 19 characters isn't short). But I can't imagine myself with any other name than my own. How can I be anything else other than SK?

I wonder whether it's the first or the last name that gives us our identity. For a famous celebrity probably one's first name is enough. Take the case of Madonna, Cher, Shakira, Sting, Eminem, Bono, and Pele.I couldn't think of any Indian! For us, I guess, being a Gandhi, Kapoor, Bachchan or a Khan carries a lot of weight. But for the common man, it's the last name which identifies them; which connects them to the rest or segregates them.

The idea of changing even my last name after marriage does not sound good. Wonder what made Romeo offer to drop his last name for sake of love. I should probably check with Juliet how she managed to convince him. And if you have no idea what I am talking go read Romeo and Juliet.

P.S : Was just going through my previous posts, and noticed there are soooooooo many I's in there!!!! Think the name of my blog needs to be changed to Me,Myself and SK!!Dunno how a blog is supposed to be. But don't think I would be able to write about anything unless I am able to relate to it somehow. There I go,some more I's!!