Name or Surname.

Early morning today the Headline of a leading daily blared, "Rahul named for HRD". My immediate reaction was "Oh! Rahul Dravid"! Sure I was curious to read more, only to realise that it is Rahul Gandhi. Silly of me to mix Politics with Sports. The same happened yesterday.The headline read, "Sonia bats for farmers...' And my mind flashed before me several Sonia's' I know. Of course, the content and the visual told me how very mistaken I was.

But this happens to me very often these days. The newspaper says " Saina" and I read it as " Sania Mirza" and vice versa. Really God, so much confusion in my little mind! If I dare to tell this to my husband I am sure he will snap and say, " So typically housewife kind. Your mind is always in the kitchen. Why can't you be more attentive".

Oh well! May be he is right. But mind knows no reasoning. It works more on sequence wise registration of facts-at least my mind, so to say. And so if tomorrow a newspaper says "Kapil to decide...", I am sure I will think of Kapil Dev first! I hope the very learned and courteous Kapil Sibal will forgive me for that faux pas.

Maybe, this all has some connection with an incident that took place during my college days. A classmate of mine wrote in the tutorial "William" instead of "William Shakespeare". Our Madam commented sarcastically, "Why is he your cousin?" The caustic remark had an effect on me, I guess. So much so that when I got married I made sure to have my new surname included in the signature. Times have changed. I don't see my daughter following this rule. I am sure she would scorn at me if I were to say anything. For that would be challenging the position of a woman today, I suppose.

But then, one question I wish to pose to all the learned Indian Reporters. How come you write " Homi Sethna, Asha Bhonsle, Kishore Kumar, Sonal Mansingh" and not just do with Homi, Asha, Kishore and Sonal?

We must give credit to our ancestors came up with the novel idea called 'surnames".