Whats in a name? Part two (conclusion)

So, time for my nicknames... Obviously, I will be able to comment only about the names that I am aware of and not the ones that you use when referring to me in my absence.

The earliest one I was given, I believe is "MKT". Which is the short form for one of the earliest Tamil movie demi-gods - M.K.Thyagaraja Bhagavathar. I did have long curly hair and this reminded many people of MKT and thus the name.

Then in the "international" school that I studied, the name I can recollect was "pooshanikkai". Yes, not surprisingly, I was a fat kid. Not morbidly obese at any stage, but fat for sure. I cannot remember any other name from that school.

When I joined VM, it was class VI. Thats when the History books started talking about the evolution of the human species. So when talks of homo sapiens, Neanderthal Man, Peaking Man etc came up, Java Man was also one species that was mentioned. By a natural process of cause and effect, I was called Jawaman. A name thats stuck with me for quite some time.

I was also called Jawa by some kids and those how found that a mouthful to handle, started calling me Jawi.

Then in class VII/VIII (I don't remember), we were introduced to Chemistry. We were told that the chemical symbol for "Lead" was 'pb'. So some kids called me "plumbum jawahar" or "lead jawahar" as a direct substitute for my initials.

Then some enterprising kid came up with the "pub" to replace the plumbum/lead. And with the old Jawi and Jawa, I became "pubjawa" or "pubjawi".

But in the end, till I completed school, Jawi was the first choice for most kids, closely followed by Jawa.

Once I entered college, I never really got any nickname worth mentioning. For the first two years at least, it was only Jawar. And then in my 5th semester I bravely got me a mushroom haircut. This kinda screwed up my hairstyle and by the time the 6th semester started, I was back to being called a bhagavathar.

Thankfully, that name didn't last long and was soon dropped off. There were quite a few other such names that probably lasted a couple of days, but nothing concrete.

And after I joined work, it was again back to Jawa or Jawar. I haven't done anything at work that caused anyone to give me a different name or abbreviation or anything of that sort.

Even when I was in LA, the natives (and naturalised citizens) there, used to make it a point to address me as Jawahar, but in various forms as mentioned in my previous posting. For a short while, some of them called me JP. But like many others, that too didn't last a long time.

And one of the Project Directors there, suddenly started referring to me as "J" in a couple of mails. And coincidentally, another friend of mine (Arvind) too used to refer to me as J in mails.

I somehow liked this and for the past 2 years or so, I sign off most of my personal mails as "J".

And after joined this company too, one of my friends in my circle, suddenly started calling me J. And the leads in my project too used to address some mails and most of the chat sessions as J.

So, since none of you has come up with any kind of good nick name for me, I have decided that I will go with "J" as my other name. Except in totally official mails, I will sign off only as J.

Most importantly, you are hereby requested to address me as "J". Unless, of course, you can give me a cooler nickname.