Behind the name

Scene: POS (point of sale) at Macy's. Hubby and I waiting to pay the bill for that much desired dress I have been eying for ages. Finally mine. whoop!!
We wait our turn to get to the cashier. Within minutes we are in front of her.
Cashier scans the item. Its time to pay. " Take the credit card out hun" I say.
Not that I couldn't pay, but I was
a) lazy
b) wanting to bask in the bliss of hubby buying yet another coveted item for me";)

So hubby takes out wallet, and hands over the card to the cashier. Its a credit card.
Cashier: "Can I see your ID sir"?
Hubby: "Sure, here you go" and hands over Id to cashier.

And there it begins - a literal journey of sorts.. Cashier looks at card, then looks at id, again and again and again.
She then blinks, looks up at us with this exasperated look and says..."umm your first name and last name are pretty much the same!!:O
"Just do your job lady" we think aloud...in our heads.
(PS: hubby has a first name that is about 10+ characters long and last name which is 12+!!, mine isnt any better...anyways...) So I guess she was expecting names like "apple", victory, rose, Jim, "john" whatever weird short names that people have nowadays!!
She asks us how to pronounce the name? Really?? Lady ? Are you really trying to bond?
and there begins another battle.. We try to say it , she tries, we try to correct her, but in vain.. She finally gives up and says..."ok thanks" and returns the card. The name is too long and too complicated to even try pronouncing.

haha and thats just another day.

Being first borns, ( Sound like a vampire!) I think my husband and I werent spared the travesty of owning such longwinding complex names. And people around the place that I live are so used to hearing and saying things in tunes. They are very comfortable and quickly catch on if there is a tune to them. Sadly we dont qualify.. forget the tune, try spelling it. its that hard.

To make things easier for them and for us and to avoid those typical mundane" oh your name is so long and it sthe same as your last name" drama, we are actually forced to shorted them..

So Indian names like "Palanivel" ( terrible example I know!!) becomes "pal" and "Santhanamoorthy" becomes Santa!

Lesson learnt: Short, sweet names that have a tune to them are easier to work with. But where can one find options? Variety? I guess instead of trying to shorted long names, might as well name kids "Santa", and "Pal".. Makes life easier for a hella lot of peeps!!

- G