My nicknames

I have had quite a few nicknames so far. At school I was always "AJ", which are my initials and stand for Alangar Jayagovind. That was understandable, because I was the third Karthik in the attendance register and hence, the letters "AJ" not only symbolized my parentage but were also my identifiers. Through college and my first job, the same moniker held me in good stead. When I went back to college for a second time, as expected, I found that there was another Karthik in the class and so, the necessity for a nickname cropped up again. Having grown tired of my childhood nickname, I chose a new sobriquet - "YAK". This is an acronym whose original antecedents are a bit hazy. I don't quite remember if I heard it for the first time from a colleague or read it on a blog. But either way it suited me fine in the given situation and so, during the introduction session on the freshers ragging night, I stepped up to the stage, right after my namesake had finished, and announced to the world that for the sake of differentiation I would henceforth respond to the acronym YAK, which stood for "Yet Another Karthik".

YAK was a roaring success as a nickname. To this day people from my MBA days know me as YAK and I bet many don't know why; I'm sure quite a few even don't know what my actual name is! Once I started working after my second degree, I chose to call myself Karthik Jayagovind. This was partly to establish my sense of lineage and partly in gratitude and respect to my father who, as always, stood by me and helped me through a very trying phase before I settled down in my current job.

This whole business of nicknames had faded into obscurity until recently, when a spirited colleague left a whole bunch of us gaping when he introduced me to a seminar audience with gusto as, "the ever-dependable Mr. Karthik Jayagovind, whom we also call KJo!". It's been many months since then, but my work-mates still double up with laughter everytime that incident is recalled. Well, after my official rechristening, there was a heated debate on what KJo stood for. My cubicle mate Mr. Mangalore insisted that it stood for Karan Johar, but thankfully the colleague who started it all clarified over a round of drinks that KJo came from FloJo who was a runner of repute from the United States until she was charged with doping offences - and so, there ended that debate.

As I sat to write another entry in this blog, I noticed the title "YAK YAK" and felt that I owed you folks an explanation and that's why the sermon on nicknames. Before I finish, try taking a guess about the antecedents of my latest nickname at work - "Yayagovind!" This one cropped up after my good friend's Dutch boss chose to read aloud, rather shout aloud my email id that goes karthik.jayagovind* for the entire office floor to hear. I'm sure he would laugh it off and nod ja, ja....Prost!

*The Dutch pronounce ja as ya