Here’s my biggest secret: I sometimes can’t pronounce my own name.
Eight letters and four syllables, yet my name presents infinite quandaries of inflection, unslanted vowels, and cross-continental conundrums. I’ve got the Magic 8-Ball of ethnic names: Shake me up, and you get a different answer every time. The truth is, I’m not always sure myself.
Growing up Indian in America, I’ve always felt like a part of me was lost in translation. My name, so beautiful in my parents’ native Tamil, doesn’t quite fit my flattened American accent. For the longest time, I couldn’t shake off the weight of my eight scarlet letters, making me incurably, inescapably different.