Random Thought #1

A few weeks ago, my parents and I were in Chandigarh. Ma was getting her passport renewed and she had to go sign a few papers at the Police Station. She went dutifully, signed wherever she had to. Then they asked her for her name. "Malini", she said. "Surname?", the Burly Sardar Police Uncle asked. Ma answered, "I'm a Tamilian Brahman, humare yahaan nahi hota (we don't have surnames) aur hota bhi hai toh pati ka naam (and if we do add another name, it's the husband's name)" BSPU says, "Aise kaise ji? Sharma hoga (How this is ji? Sharma it must be)" Ma said, "Hum Iyers hai aur nahi, Sharma nahi hai (We're Iyers and nope, NOT Sharma)"

BSPU ended up declaring that my mother's name was indeed Malini Sharma, Sharma being her surname. Fine ji, whatever you say!

But that got me thinking about how weird it is that most South-Indians don't exactly have Surnames and it's either our father's or husband's (in the case of a woman) name that defines our *Full Name*. Surnames or Family Names don't exist in Tamil Nadu.

And what was more random was that, we'd never be known as the "Sivaram Khandaan/Parivar" unlike our Northern counterparts like the "Aggarwal Khaandaan" or the "Gupta Parivar" =D Tamilians will never have a "Tatas" or "Birlas" or "Ambanis" ...

So in a way, again, a random thought-it's more of an individual identity :) Which is maybe nicer, because sometimes we come across good-for-nothing heirs to some empire-like businesses and wonder what they ever did to have their name associated with something like that.

But then, the Brahman caste-divide is or atleast was more pronounced in Tamil Nadu. And the caste system essentially had to do with accident of birth!

I have no clue where I'm trying to go with this, but then, it is a random thought!

PS-The Random Thought Series would be just this stuff :P