It all began when I left the shores of India for the first time. Those were the times when I used to introduce myself with my full name, "Manohar Mulchandani". It is not uncommon in India to do so. People would respond with a Oh... Hmm... and a smile. I used to interpret it as "Long name, isn't it. No wonder it is a little difficult to pronounce." No problem. Over a period of time, I started introducing myself as just "Manohar". Not that this solved the problem, but it helped. The response improved. "What did you say your name is, people would ask. I would go "man-o-har" ( "man" rhymes with "bun" and "har" is pronounced as "her") and they would go "man-o-haar" ( "man" rhyming with "ban"). And I would repeat again, very slowly "man-o-har", but without much improvement. And as with other things that we tend to accept, I accepted to being called "man-o-haar". Soon that became the "correct" pronounciation for my name, when I was abroad. There been some people with an inclination for adventure, I feel. "And what's your last name ?", they ask. And they do a better job than with my first name.
But its not been roses all the way. There are people who think that I have a cooked up name. Not very flattering, I must say. And then there are those really simple people. They refer to me as the "guy with a long name".
I have begun to look at it a little philosophically. English is a funny language, or so someone has said. The fact that English is not a phoetic language gives rise to a funny situation. One combination of seven letters in the English alphabet, that my name is, rendering itself to so many pronunciations, leading to some very funny situations sometimes. Here are some I remember
man-o-haar ( man rhyming with ban )
