I entered the new apartment, my escort introduced me to my new house-mate. I smiled and exchanged pleasantries, and the locket on her neck caught my attention. The locket was a simple one with the letter 'A' engraved on it.
The alphabet 'A' marks the beginning of the English alphabet. Several people give their children names beginning with 'A' as they believe that being ahead in the alphabetical order will give their children an edge over others. Statistically 10% of names are believed to have to begin with the letter A,
Though only a tenth of the population have names beginning with this letter, three-fourth of my friends have names beginning with A. This is because of circumstances and chance.
My brother and I shared initials. Our parents named us with Rhyming names that began with the letter 'A'. We shared a calculator that was marked with our initials. This was planned, but having friends with the same initials is something I never expected.
In the college I pursued my Undergraduate Education in they segregated the freshmen based on the starting letter of their name. As a result my class or 'A' Section was filled with 85 people all having names beginning with the same alphabet. Everytime the roll call was made, it would be utterly chaotic as a number of people would answer to common names like Aditya, Aishwarya, Aarthi etc.
Sometimes two people with the same first name and initial would be present in the class and that would add to more chaos. Instances of mixing of grades were not uncommon.
Sophomore year was slightly better as we were segregated into our respective departments. I was in the Mechanical Engineering Course and did not have the name problem as I was one among the two girls in the course. The name 'Arun' was very common and 1/8th of my batch had the name. Infact the name Arun Kumar was so common that I had a senior, a classmate and junior by the same name. It so happened that the classmate 'Arun Kumar' and the junior were both friends of mine. This led to my family christening them as 'Thambi' (younger brother) Arun Kumar (For the junior) and Friend Arun Kumar.
My senior and good friend in college (Yet another Arun) had the same initials as mine and many friends also had the same set of initials. It became increasingly difficult to sign with initials as no one could fathom whose initials they were.
The 'A' spree did not end with Undergrad. As I mentioned earlier in the post, my roomie in Singapore also has a name that begins with 'A'. So does one among my two Besties.
When I look at my medical report or identitiy card, I see the blood group and realize that 'A+' is more symbolic than it seems for some of the most important people in my life have names beginning with 'A'.
