HOW DO YOU WRITE MY NAME?

One of my students sent me Season’s Greetings for which I thanked him all right, but I wasn’t very happy because he wrote Khalikhur Rehman for my name. Later, when he met me, I asked him why he spelt my name like that, he said he thought personal names had no fixed spellings! ‘That’s okay’, I said, ‘but individual preferences on this point have to be respected.’ He got my point and said, ‘Sorry’ and promised to be careful.

It is a common belief with most of us that we can write any spelling as far as proper nouns, particularly, personal names are concerned. What does that mean? It means that I can choose to write one of the possible spellings of my name, and so can you in the case of your name, but I must write your name the way you write it and so must you when you write mine. This is mutual respect, isn’t it?

In fact, this mutual respect is not restricted to spellings only; it is extended to pronunciation and the use of capital letters, too.

As far as possible, one should try to pronounce a name as accurately as possible according to how that person whose name it is pronounces it. William Cowper, the poet used to pronounce his surname as Cooper, and everybody fell in line and the English Pronouncing Dictionary records it, too.

It is a pity, then, isn’t it, that quite a few of the British, South African and Australian Commentators pronounce Indian names the way they like it, and sometimes make fun of them, too.

The poet e e cummings never used capital letters. We must, therefore, respect his preference and never write E E Cummings.

The British surnames beginning with ff are often written in small letters. However, the London Telephone Dictionary writes both Ffoulkes and ffoulkes or Ffyche and ffyche. It is interesting to note here that ff in such surnames originated not as a double f, but as an old fashioned form of the capital F!

Surnames beginning with prefixes pose special problems. Surnames beginning with O should always be written with capital O and capital first letter after the apostrophe like, O’Brien, O’Sullivan.

In surnames beginning with d’, da, de, del, della, di, du, l’, la, le, van and von, individual preferences vary a great deal and one comes across both Van Den Berg and van den Berg. van den Berg and van den berg are also possible. Variation is possible in Mc or Mac surnames and one is likely to come across both MacDonald and McDonald; also Macdonald and even Mcdonald.

But if it is someone else’s name, we have no choice but to write the way he or she writes it.

How do we write the titles that go with personal names? We give a capital letter to all titles that precede personal names. Titles of a personal nature are written Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss, Lady and Sir and, titles indicating rank and order as I, II and so on ( in Roman figures ). An organization or status in a profession is written President, Chairman, Mayor, Dr and Professor. Mark Mr, Mrs, Ms and Dr have no full stops. In British English, they write, for example just Mr and not Mr.

One writes Mrs Roberts, the director of the welfare committee but Dr Manmohan Singh the Prime Minister.

 What will you write when you wish to address both husband and wife for example in the case of Chopras: Mr & Mrs Chopra or Mrs & Mr Chopra?

And how will you write the address and send an invitation to Dr Manmohan Singh and his wife?

COFFEE EVENINGS IN EDINBURGH

COFFEE - EVENINGS IN EDINBURGH

Khaliqur Rahman

Volunteers from the Overseas Students’ Centre (OSC) are there to receive the new-comers. Our train from London reaches Edinburgh on time at 3:30 in the afternoon and soon we are in the warm and cosy little reception of the Centre. We’re welcomed with coffee and biscuits. We’re then given pin-flags with our names on them. There is a big world map on one of the walls in the room and each one of us is asked to show on the map where one comes from. I hoist my flag on the dot showing Raipur, Madhya Pradesh (now Chhatisgarh), India.

Then they give each of us a packet which has enough information, well written and well printed on glossy paper about the Centre. I gather that the OSC, at 3, A Buccleuch (pronounced buckloo) Place, provides a focal point for all students from abroad who are in Edinburgh. The atmosphere there, they say, is relaxed and friendly and students, willing to go along and mix with the others who know what it’s like to be a stranger in a strange land, many thousand miles away from home, should always drop by. Vegetarian lunches are available at the Centre on weekdays from 12:30 and frequent evening events are organized. The Centre also provides a selection of foreign periodicals and British newspapers. A few days later, I discover that I can always lay my hands on the International editions of India Today.

Another glossy sheet promises, in a well programmed way, warm and cordial coffee evenings. Volunteering families, in Edinburgh, arrange these coffee evenings for overseas students. The idea is to keep the new entrants in good cheer, lest they should feel lonely and homesick.

We have our first coffee evening with the Boyds. Rev Kenneth Boyd is a Chaplain in the University Chaplaincy, I soon come to know, and Mrs Boyd teaches Islamic Studies at school in Watson’s College. They have no children. But I notice, they have a dog, middle aged, just as the Boyds, and lazy and portly, too, just as any priest head anywhere.

Someone passes coffee, someone else biscuits. In an informal atmosphere, each one of us bumps into the other to ask for and give introduction like one’s name and country and the course one is going to do in Edinburgh and so on. In a few minutes, the crowd of about 30 breaks into smaller groups of two or three. It is good company for each soon purely on the basis of vibes, I suppose. Each little group then sits down, on chairs, in the settees and on the carpet.

I find myself with the Boyds on the carpet. The initial ‘phatic’ communion prepares us for more specific, perhaps more meaningful conversation. At some point Mrs Boyd asks me what I think of Sufism. I tell her Sufism is Spiritualism and Spiritualism starts where Religion ends! Have you ever seen a saint with a belly, and a priest head, Pope, Imam or Shankaracharya, without one? I ask.

Rev Boyd looks at his paunch and laughs!

The Boyds invite me to dinner several times during my one year stay in Edinburgh.