This inspires me to write a post of my own. But here is a little incident I want to share. I was once volunteering at my children's school in Kosovo. I did not realize that my name was repeatedly being called - they addressed me as Ms. Po-ya (which sounds like 'get lost' in Tamil). I had rosy ideas about my very common name being made even more common in Bollywood until that day 😅
This was such a fun read. I have resigned myself to most people in Mallorca not pronouncing my name correctly. What gets my goat is when I spell it out clearly and slowly to admin staff in hospitals, hairdressers or clubs (where you'd think people are used to taking down names), they still go on to spell it in old which way that they want!
It gets really interesting in Bali where children are named based on the order of birth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balinese_name), pretty much the whole island has only about 5 names!!
My all time favourite thing about Indondsia are its naming traditions. From another early piece of this newsletter: "The nomenclatural equivalent of the architectural diversity described above is equally wondrous. Names in Indonesia can be long or short, but more often than not, they are startling. Indonesian appellations varyingly derive from Sanskrit, Arabic, multiple local and European languages, as well as the fertile imagination of parents.
One of the country’s top defense lawyers, for example, is called (I kid you not) Hotman Paris Hutapea. Indonesian names mix cultures, religions, languages and imagery in unexpected, but wonderful, ways. An especially common juxtaposition is between overtly Muslim names and traditional Sanskrit-based, “Hindu” ones. Mohammad Gunawan, for instance, is amongst the most famous writers in the country. The former religious affairs minister, a hardliner, was called Suryadharma Ali. Scanning the newspapers reveals a smorgasbord of monikers like, Teddy Anwar, Muhammad Krisna, and Batman Bin Supraman. Once I read an article about someone called “Andi Go To School.” Goto (as Andi Go To School went by) was a policeman from Central Java, whose father, also blessed with an unusual appellation - Bullking, named his son thusly in the hope that it would make Andi love going to school.
My dear Pallavi I have reread your article several times a smile producing piece of literary sunshine….And will take your implicit advice and use Jesus rather than my Ultano when next in Starbucks…
Saw the reference to my cousin, we are a large clan and often use Starbucks🙂
:-)
This inspires me to write a post of my own. But here is a little incident I want to share. I was once volunteering at my children's school in Kosovo. I did not realize that my name was repeatedly being called - they addressed me as Ms. Po-ya (which sounds like 'get lost' in Tamil). I had rosy ideas about my very common name being made even more common in Bollywood until that day 😅
Love it!
This was such a fun read. I have resigned myself to most people in Mallorca not pronouncing my name correctly. What gets my goat is when I spell it out clearly and slowly to admin staff in hospitals, hairdressers or clubs (where you'd think people are used to taking down names), they still go on to spell it in old which way that they want!
It gets really interesting in Bali where children are named based on the order of birth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balinese_name), pretty much the whole island has only about 5 names!!
My all time favourite thing about Indondsia are its naming traditions. From another early piece of this newsletter: "The nomenclatural equivalent of the architectural diversity described above is equally wondrous. Names in Indonesia can be long or short, but more often than not, they are startling. Indonesian appellations varyingly derive from Sanskrit, Arabic, multiple local and European languages, as well as the fertile imagination of parents.
One of the country’s top defense lawyers, for example, is called (I kid you not) Hotman Paris Hutapea. Indonesian names mix cultures, religions, languages and imagery in unexpected, but wonderful, ways. An especially common juxtaposition is between overtly Muslim names and traditional Sanskrit-based, “Hindu” ones. Mohammad Gunawan, for instance, is amongst the most famous writers in the country. The former religious affairs minister, a hardliner, was called Suryadharma Ali. Scanning the newspapers reveals a smorgasbord of monikers like, Teddy Anwar, Muhammad Krisna, and Batman Bin Supraman. Once I read an article about someone called “Andi Go To School.” Goto (as Andi Go To School went by) was a policeman from Central Java, whose father, also blessed with an unusual appellation - Bullking, named his son thusly in the hope that it would make Andi love going to school.
https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2017/06/24/9-unusual-indonesian-names.html
My dear Pallavi I have reread your article several times a smile producing piece of literary sunshine….And will take your implicit advice and use Jesus rather than my Ultano when next in Starbucks…
Fascinating, dear Pallavi! I especially like your calling out or getting called bythose 25+ capital letters! Hugs - Rolf
Parents these days may be tempted to chose a short name for their babies, that will be easy to pronounce in Starbucks, like Alia, Nico or the like :)
I named my kids Alexa and Siri.
"an impressive grasp of Roman numerals, but a less firm grip on current affairs."
😂