What's In a SUR-Name?

“What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

― William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)\

Well, Mr Shakespeare I think you are wrong. Name defines a person's unique Identity. It is a part of one's personality that makes a person who he is.

Once I was travelling by bus when I met a woman. Since it was a 3hr journey and my nature of mixing with strangers prompted me, I started a conversation with her. The first question she asked me was 

"Whats your surname"

I answered her question.Suddenly she started looking at me with suspicion. She immediately asked me

"So you belong to ***** caste ?"

I regretted the fact that I myself had made the stupidity of starting the conversation with that lady. But she appeared well educated from her looks. I have had this experience several times with different people, but for a stranger that question seemed to be a bit odd for me. Narrow minded people can be found anywhere in India. Even my father has the same hobby,of guessing caste's accurately from surname. I pretended that I had not heard her second question and started listening to songs putting on my earphones. 

I always wonder why we write our Surnames. What do surnames mean? They have been just passed from generation to generation without any particular reason. How have they evolved? Nobody can answer these questions. 

I also came to know about people who did not like their surnames like "fakte", "daruwalla" etc and how they changed their surnames.

A teenager from USA has changed his name to "Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine Hulk And The Flash Combine"

At the same time I was fascinated by names like A.P.J Abdul Kalam, M. C Mary Kom and P. T Usha.

 I came to know that some people write the name of their native village in front of their names. In short, everyone had their own "funda" of name.

 I read an article by an author named "Manaswini Lata Ravindra". She said that it would be better if we write our parents name instead of surnames. In this way we can acknowledge them as well as get rid of surnames whose meaning we don't even know. I realised that whatever she had written was indeed the truth. We use our father's name as middle name. But what about our mother? She is the one who has taken deep pains for us. Why not acknowledge her? Your existence is because of her. Hence her name must be present. Hence the name "Sanjay Leela Bhansali".

Thereafter I changed my name to S.N.T Kalyani. Although not officially, but its a small beginning I guess.