Veekshanam Menon did not have an issue with his name. But the people around him had. His ma called him "veekshoooo" with the swara, raga and taala varying according to the degree of sweetness or naughtiness Veekshanam displayed. But legend has it that his ma never "shoo"ed him away.
His school sweetheart- meenakshi- called him "Veee", suffixed with endearments like "Kuttaa", "Kannaa", "Ponnae " depending on the level of sweetness she herself found her in. She had an affinity to" modernity" she frequently saw in Hindi movies,the ones she watched with her friend Lakshmi at Laksmi's house in the imported Akai VCR that Lakshmi's father had bought from Sharjah. But she could not enjoy "modernity" herself because her mother was of the opinion that girls should be seen and look good in Half saree and blouse , oiled and braided hair tied with red ribbons.So she satisfied herself by giving Veekshanam a modern pet name. Luckily, his school did not have the stylish upperclass pranky boys with gelled hair and ipods and who spoke Phoren English in his times. Else he would have been easily counternamed Peeee.
His north Indian friends , during his days of bachelor hood and work, would stop at Veekshan!!He used to wonder, how a typical Delhiite who could talk endlessly about how he is the most influential person in the whole of Delhi or give a long list of politicians and policemen he knows or give the choicest of exotic verbal abuses at a hapless scooterist for threatening to touch his Maruti Esteem could be so frugal in pronouncing his name. But then most northindians have that tendency with names... think Ravan ( not Ravanan) , Lakshman ( Lakshmanan) , Ravan ( Ravanan) ,Anant( ananthan) .
His stint in USA threw up quite an interesting array of pronunciations. It will be beyond the scope of this article to list all of them. but there was this incident when a client whom he was getting introduced to in the US, started pronouncing his name and got stuck near" nam". His jaws locked and he has ever since been seen with a sneer in his face caused by that jaw-lock.
During his US stay Veekshanam did become attracted to all that was American and opted for a beer-burger belly,blonde girlfriends, 3Km/litre SUV,a clean shaven look and a new name his American friends gave him- V K SHAN!!
And he did have a brief stint as a Rock Star in the "let the Bums shake" pub in down town Manhattan.
He returned to his motherland and over the course of his many years of existance , Veekshanam, through the arduous and scientific method of trial and error arrived at a name that eased many a pain- V K Menon!!! He suddenly was home!! He became erudite, fashionable and elderly.
Wonder what Meenakshi would think..
Whatever the name, Veekshanam Menon is a man with a view point , except when his beer belly obstructs the view of his "thingy" when he pees.
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