Rain! Rain! - "End My Opus"

To people who are wondering what Opus has to do with my post, here it is. Opus in Latin means 'work'. I am ready to end my work and start another person's work. Yes. I am ready with my pseudonym at last.

As you know, I share my name with a film actor. So, I wanted one name from my own individual search. But it is not quite easy to settle down with a particular name. The following were my choices before I finally found the best/my favourite.

Yadhunandhan:

I was always in favour of a name in தமிழ்- my mother tongue - with short sounds, or in தமிழ் , குறில் எழுத்துகள். I was also interested in the name because it represented Lord Krishna, whose methods to manipulate the entire war of Mahabhaarat attracted me. I was also in favour of doing any trick which led to the establishment and victory of Dharma. But, as time passed, I wanted to be secular and unbiased to all religions. Hence, I had to part with my very first choice for a pseudonym.

The same secular intent disqualified names such as Ramanujam and Xavier.

Name for a name:

An eye for an eye will make the world go blind, but I thought "A name for a name" wouldn't do much harm. As the actor was re-christened with my name, I thought of lifting off his name for my pseudonym. His birth name was John Kennedy, but again, due to secular reasons , "John" or "Kennedy" was rejected. There began the search for names used by him in his movies.

Names like, Raju, Gemini, Thiyaagaraajan, Suresh, etc. were rejected as they weren't in my mother tongue.

Names like Hameed, Kasi, Kanagavel, Aarumugam, Aarusaamy, Chitthan, Arul kumaran, and Kanthaswamy were rejected for the secular intention.

Names like Samurai, Sethu, Anniyan etc. were rejected because I had already used them as my usernames in my mails and found them old.

I had to find one from Dev, Sathyamoorthy, Sekhar and Arivumathi.

I thought of a tamizh form for the name 'Dev' as in Devan or 'தேவன்'. But, there was already a reknown publisher/writer of the same name.

'Sekhar ' didn't impress me, and 'Arivumathi' sounded too pompous as it denoted 'excess of knowledge' . Because both 'Arivu' and 'Mathi' meant 'Knowledge' in my mother tongue.

As I wanted to write a lot of fiction including a lot lies, I didn't want for 'Sathyamoorthy' because it meant ' An Idol of truth'.

A different film name:

As I was browsing through the books written by my favourite author "Sujatha \ சுஜாதா" Rangarajan, I came across a definition for the word 'Akhil'. The word actually meant the entire world in my mother tongue but also had a different name in 'armour'. So, I was interested with this. This was also related to the actor because, the film 'Sethu' which brought him to the limelight was originally titled 'Akhilan' and to be released under a different name. I was quite joyous after learning about this fact because the prospect of an armour saving me was very interesting.

I was ready for Akhilan, but I was deeply disappointed when I found that there was another profound thamizh\ தமிழ் author who had this name.

I wasn't ready to share the pseudonym too.

AT LAST:

I finally got one after compromising with the "short-sound" constraint. I liked the name "Maari" not "Mary" or "Marie". This name stood for the rain, and I liked the rain very much. A few other resources also told that it was the name of a sylvan rain god. What else would I need? So, here it is. All reporters, kindly note down. The 'pseudonym' is finally ready. The rain!!! - source for one of the five elements which the world needs to survive.

So, if you find any author of the same name, kindly inform me. If not, the name, Maari is here to stay forever. ```!```!```!- Rain, what else?

MORPHEUS

Yes, I am indeed referring to the character played by Lawrence Fishburne in the Matrix trilogy. This name here would refer to my best friend at school, Dhanesh R. Now, that might be a unique name for you. I bet 80% of the folks around would have thought twice when you say the name. Most would confuse this with Dhinesh which is not right.

Speaking etymologically, DHANESH would mean a wealthy man. “Dhan” stands for wealth and anyone who holds a lot of wealth can be called as DHANESH, and this person in particular can be rightfully called so not because he is from a reasonable strong family financially, but because he is rich in many other aspects. We share a lot common interests. Be it being great fans of Sachin, Dhoni, “Sujatha” Rangarajan, Sydney Sheldon, Dan Brown, Rajnikanth, Kamal Hassan, AR Rehman, Mani Ratnam, and Shankar or sharing the last bench in class XII back in school where we silently discussed many strategies, Dhanesh has always been my best pal all along since we met in 2001. Both of us had sisters who did their X when we did our XII.

He has rich knowledge when it comes to computers. Ah! I forgot something. You see my typing these posts from my PC only because of this person. He took the responsibility to help me out in buying the best accessories when I decided to buy a PC for my own. It was on December 12th 2006, the birthday of the Superstar, Rajnikanth when he helped me buy the PC, its accessories and set things up for me. He has been very helpful when it comes to maintaining my PC in its state. Whenever he came home from Hyderabad, I would have a thing or two to ask him about the updates which could be done to my PC. As a matter of fact, my desktop is a picture of Lawrence Fishburn striking a pose with two guns from the Matrix trilogy. That is because Morpheus a.k.a Dhanesh would be there always to to safeguard my system from any threats. Not to forget how he extra ordinarily saved my PC once from an alleged virus attack trying to sell off a costly Antivirus software and all my movies when my system threatened me of an agonizing crash of the operating system.

He was the one who introduced me to IIT coaching classes which almost changed my entire life. He had sown the seeds but had to unfortunately give way to other commitments after that. He was my lucky charm back in class when I would try IIT problems sitting the last row, when something uninteresting(!) was being lectured by some teacher. When he was by my side, I was able to solve problems quickly and accurately. He took to Engineering when I deviated towards Sciences. For people who think that being friends with people from entirely different disciplines is tough, we could be shown as best examples. What more, most of my close friends are engineers and Arts graduates when I have been studying (still studying!) Mathematics.

In addition to the reason told above, there is another reason why I would call him Morpheus. He was the one who introduced me to the world of computers and computer applications. I would relate him as Morpheus but would refrain myself from being related to NEO (Keanu Reeves) because I know that I am not the ONE to rule the world of computers. If he was Morpheus I am glad to be one of the juniors in the team who learnt the art from him. So, here is the profile of "Morpheus" Dhanesh and his blog. http://secondblogaccount.blogspot.com/He too writes interesting chronicles of his thoughts.

NUMERO UNO

This is all about a name, my name. One might well ask," What's in a name? ". To me, my name is everything.This might not have the same effect as I had felt a few years ago. There was a time when I didn't like my name. The only reason was that it was uncommon,...rather very unpopular. No one outside my circle of friends knew the name. They would just frown their eye-brows on hearing my name and would just leave the place. Of all the names I had heard then there was one, and only one popular name. Raja/Raju. Back then, the heroes in most movies had this name. Rajnikanth, Kamal hassan, Sivaji ganesan, MGR, Chiranjeevi, Amitabh Bachchan.. and so on. Name a hero, and I can name a movie in which they had this famous name. Mine wasn't like that. I didn't know of any celebrity with this name. I was looking at all possible opportunities to change my name to something very popular.One of my cousins was born then. When there was a ceremony to name the newly born son, I wanted him to be named "Raja/Raju", but it didn't happen.

CELEBRITY AT LAST:

I was told that there was a movie bearing my name acted by one of the superstars I had mentioned above. I was feeling elated when I watched the movie. The hero, a Central intelligence Officer, looked very dynamic in his role.He tried to retrieve a stolen rocket which could be used as a threat to our nation. I liked it so much that I forgot the uncommonness of my name. From that day, that was my favourite movie. But, as we grow, when we realize this world, a few things reprise their roles in our lives. I realized that the movie had nothing for me to be proud of. It was just a fictional character, and there was no one, flesh and blood, before me. The search was still on.

A TEMPORARY SOLACE:

If you had asked any normal school kid a few years ago about their favourite sport, the answer would be cricket. Kids these days have taken more to video games and computer games . It was different then. I too had started playing gully cricket during World cup '96. But alas, there wasn't anyone in cricket too, bearing my name. But, you could not have foregone cricket for anything. When the world cup came to an end and a new squad was picked for the England tour, a few names hit the head lines. Yes... I had found an opener, a right handed batsman from Punjab with the same name. Success at last, and he was my favourite cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar. But the joy was very short-lived. The opener lost in the race to the coveted post of an Indian opener and finally faded out of the limelight after playing a few series. However, a few years later, I came across a foreign player with the same first name. He was of Indian origin but played for England. My strong patriotic intentions did not let me go behind this person.

SCIENCE, AT L(E)AST!!!:

Friends from the same system of Education as I was in would easily recollect reading a subject called General Knowledge. It was an interesting subject which would not demand you to solve any complex problems or memorize any equations. This would just demand common sense even during the time of examination. If you are curious enough to learn the subject before hand, then this subject never would never let you down. It was this subject which introduced me to a great scientist who was born almost 70 years ago. This scientist, a leading person in Space research made me proud again. But again, I was feeling bad that he wasn't around any more when I realized the fact.

MOVIES AGAIN!!:

The same silver screen which gave me some hope when I was a kid came into my picture(!) again. This time it was an actor, a hero with my name. Eventhough his first film as hero in தமிழ் wasn't a great hit, I was hopeful of some fame. He made a comeback again working under a big banner. This was from the production house of the great Amitabh Bachchan. He played the second hero, as people would say because he never married any heroine in the movie. I would spend my nights dreaming myself in his shoes, hoping for the same hairstyle and body when I grew up past my teens. But he grew, made money, bigger money, got a national award for himself and acted in films directed by most-sought directors. I was happy too and started following his films whenever reviews were written for his films.

THE AWAKENING!!!:

As time passes by, new beliefs creep in to our selves. That was when I realized that the actor had shared only his on-screen name with me and had a different name at birth. I couldn't welcome this piece of information, but I realized that my name was chosen to be the on-screen name of a person who wanted to be a celebrity. Mine was a famous one, famous enough that an actor would re-christen himself with my name. Then, I ended my search for celebrities bearing my name. I realised that to become a celebrity, you need not share your name with one, you should strive to be one of the kind. After all, your name is the first thing your parents give you, and it is the only thing which comes with you even after you cease existing.

I shall continue with more details regarding my fascination towards names.