Sukumar Mukhopadhyay: The saga of a long surname
GUEST COLUMN
| In the early days when I was posted at Rampur in UP, I had a big garden and I got first prize for calendula and chrysanthemum. But the authorities issued the prize-certificate in the name of S M Upadhyay. In UP they always used to call me Upadhyay because that was the surname they were familiar with. |
| One of the funny stories was when I tried to tell my name to the telephone operator. In the early seventies there was no STD and I was entitled to book "immediate" calls, being in the special intelligence cell. The name had to be verified first before the connection is given. On one occasion when I gave my surname as Mukhopadhyay, the lady telephone operator asked me to repeat it. I repeated once, twice, and thrice. She could not follow. Finally she said, "Please give your name in Hindi". |
| Having faced so many situations about my long surname, I wrote my son's surname as Mukherjee. But that was not the end of the problem. When he applied for his emigration to Canada, the Canadian High Commission asked him how his father could be a Mukhopadhyay and he a Mukherjee. It is very difficult to convince a foreigner that they are the same. I had to muster elaborate proof by giving affidavits from me, from my brother and from other government officers having the same surname simply to establish that Mukherjee is the same as Mukhopadhyay. |
| Once, however, I took advantage of the fact that some people do not know that Mukhopadhyay and Mukherjee are the same. In the seventies, the system was that for drawing salary in a new place of posting, central government officers had to get a pay slip from the accountant general's (AG's) office, which took enormous time to issue it. The assistant AG must have been fed up with the number of calls that I made to him asking for my pay slip. A stage came when his secretary would invariably say that he was not in the room after I disclosed my surname. Then one day I gave my surname as Mukherjee and immediately I got him on the line and I blasted him. There was a severe altercation but I got the pay slip. |
| Very recently, I went to buy a book from a publisher's showroom but reached exactly at 5.00 in the evening, when the shop was about to close. The shopkeeper would not let me in. So I gave my business card to him. He apparently got impressed and allowed me in to see the books. After I had a good look for some time but did not find the book I was looking for, I came back to him only to find that he was intently gazing at my business card, where my name was written very prominently on the top. The next question he asked me was: "But what is your name?" |
| The latest about the saga is that some days ago I got a letter from a South Indian gentleman who wrote my name as Mukhopadhyayam. So finally I have shortened my surname as just M. Now I write: Sukumar M |