My name is P.Mariappan

What is in a name? There is a lot more than meets the eye. Read on.

There were three people named Mariappan in the class. To get identified uniquely, my initial was appended to my name and hence I was P.Mariappan or shortly P.Mari, in school.

My grandfather’s name is Mariappan and I was named after him. My mother would not call me Mariappan, and hence I had a pet name Kannan.
There is still a whole lot of my friends and relatives who call me Kannan and do not know that my official name is Mariappan.

When I went to college, my name was unique. My initial was dropped and friends called me Mariappan or just Mari.
This continued when I went to a job.

My son called me Munna (That’s the mazhalai form for Mariappan).
Me : Say “Mariappan”
My son : mmmuuunnna

When I moved abroad, I had to expand my name and I became Palanisami Mariappan. People started calling me Palanisami. Then I realized, that was not how names work outside India. I was now Mariappan Palanisami.

In yahoo chat, I was changing my nick daily until I settled with the name Pradeep.

In office, I was called Maria. One of my bosses (a North Indian) added a “ji” to my name and called me Mariaji. I used to say, “Mariaji is in the league of Gandhiji, Nehruji and Dadabhai Naoroji ”

After returning to India, I shortened Mariappan Palanisami to Mariappan P.

In  this group, when I say “I am Mariappan”, people ask me “Which Mariappan?”.
Now I am P.Mariappan again.

Valkkai Oru Vattam Da.

P.Mariappan (aka) P.Mari