Story About Name

Yeah, my name is Shrutie Srivastava, I dont see anything difficult bout pronouncing it or spelling it right. But well the world does.On Umpteen ocassions my name has been spelt as Shroothi and the surname think of all the combinations: sribastaba , shirivastav, shirbastab, ... and the list goes on and on. As some one said we read only what we want to read. So 'Srivastava' not being a popular indian surname except in UP & MP, most indians simply use their intelligence and write what they feel is correct. More over they pronounce it the way they feel its right (and not the way i the bearer of the surname pronounce it)All my childhood in school i was called "Shurti" after a teacher said that in class 3, the same time we had 'Pandora's Box of troubles' being taught in english. That stuck for a while and then someone called me the desi version "Suruti" and this one stuck well into Pharmacy Graduation days where Nishant nicknamed me Shrutz (thankfully, Nishant i still thank you for that). In Junialnt again my nick name reverted to Shrutu and then the less said bout nick names the better. (PS my Dad know my nick name ... damn) anyways these errors are so pervasive in my Pharmacy degree certificate there was an error (Shirivastava instead of Srivastava and then they mispelt it the second time as Sirvatsava, damn lightning struck twice)And the bigger whammy was before our actual concocation we had a rehearsal and the Director of the (name undisclosed) mispronounced my surname. He went like Surutiiii Shir-bas-tab (the whole batch applauded) and he corrected himself. (I wasnt alone, Siddarth Khurana became Siddhant Khurana and Venkteshwarlu Bollam was a toungue twister)So much so that in the actual convocation, there was a louder than normal applause for Venketeshawrlu and me. I felt really happy thinking that my parents might think this was due to me being more popular (as in most popular guys got really loud applauses) but damn they were seated near some students from my batch and they overheard "Oh so finally MMM got Shrutie's name right"SO i surely have been used to being called something apart from my name right from childhood days, but lets see what is it which makes my surname so special.Rewind to 1900s or there abouts. My Grand Father was born Mr Mangli Prasad (son of Mr. Shiv Parsan Lal) Being born in a Kayastha family he too managed education (or so they have too) and was employed in Our Great Indian Court as 'Peshkar" (All you Indians please dont curse my lineage, i still dont support the colonial rule) Some where in Late 1930s Mr. Mangli Prasad had a problem. His boss had the same initials and their letters used to get routinely mixed up. To that add some religious mumbo jumbo and throw in an astrologer and thus for some vague reason (which we shall never know) he decided to change his surname. Thus from PRASAD he changed it to "Srivastava" (but this spelling was in devanagiri script i guess) Apparently as my grandpa says Srivastava is the name of the most intellectual caste in Kaystha (you may call it a sect, or some super sub division in our caste of Kayashtha). Well the truth is no one actually knows. After Grandpa died & eldest son came to job in media So he changed his surnam Sinha .So my Tauji moved to Delhi and changed his surname, Rest all decide to continued with the surname Srivastava .Now fast forward some where in 1950s. My dad is admitted to a school and his name was finally spelt out as Shrivastav (the spelling which changed till today). in the family we have Ramakant Sinha & rest all Kant Shrivatsva son of Mr. Mangli Prasad .Thankfully my dads 6 siblings were all Srivastava(no more variations) except one Mr. Ramakant Sinha , Now moving little fast fwd in late 1990s in class 9, one of my Great teacher has changed my Surname Spelling Srivastava . Now How come you are Srivastava and your dad is Shrivastav ? so atlast I changed may Name frm Shruti to Shruti so that there is no confusion now , in e-mail id, in post & the worst & the funniest part my lyf is that my masi's daughter 's name is also Shruti, so that our wedding card do n't mix. So thats the story behind the Name.

Personality & Number Plates

A couple of weekends back I was walking in the of Paris, when I came across this number plate on a BMW. The number plate is nothing if not ostentatious, especially in the India where you cannot get a custom number plate (like in the US, where you can get any number plate using alpha numeric code unless it is previously registered) The number is definitely CE 07 LBX, guess it's an imported car, ( C E Zero, not C E O) since the British number plates are in that manner 2 alphabets and then 2 numbers followed by more alphabets. The owner definitely must be a chief executive officer (if only of his own start up) and most probably an alumni of London Business School (CE07LBS might have been taken or X is for ex-LBS) I have heard after the credit crunch when the Cross Over Index (called XOVER colloquially on the trading floor) blew out and since it was the series 8 which experienced the most volatility some one bid GBP 10,000 for a number plate ending in X8VER and X0VER quite and emphatic statement that the person has made money from trading the Cross Over Index. (I read it in a free newspaper Mid day) The columnist said with the credit market crashing if no one else atleast the transport authorities in london made some money out of Cross Over. I have had relatives (really religious ones) who had number plates "AUM SHAKTI" and "CHAMUNDA" I am sure if I would want the plate LOSER would have already been taken. Could all of you readers suggest any name plates worth a mention which shows the personality of the owner?