Name-onic..

If you have a name that is not so common in the country you live in and anything more than a Jack or John is given up as "too complicated", you tend to start giving folks a mnemonic just so they can get your name right.. at least the spelling part!

This moring there was a yoga teacher who taught class. Apparently she has been teaching at BYSJ for a few months but this was my second time attending her class. Asked her for her name after class and she said "what is your name?"

So I gave her the mnemonic "It is Sundar. Sunday with an R" and she smiled. The real issue is that most of the folks who are told "Sunday with an R",  forget the R part and call me Sunday which is worse!  

Flashback to the early nineties..

Having spent precious rupees just spelling out SUNDARARAMAN NARAYANAN to various university admins to find out that they cannot find my file or GRE or TOEFL scores and going over the name over and over again, a strategy was deviced.

Had gotten tired of making AT&T richer and my parents poorer by the day..

Thanks to one of those admins who recomemnded she asked me to spell my name on the ISD call with a word for each letter. She had asked me "N as in Nancy or M as in Mary?" and I went "Voila! that is it. I can now spell my name to these folks who are unfamiliar with long names and get it right the first time!"

Still remember talking to Judy Trachtman who was our Admin head at Drexel shortly before I came to the USA for the first time to check on something about my I-20.. She goes "Spell your name for me kid!" and I go "Sugar Uncle Navy Dates Alpha Rainbow..." and she just started laughing and said "Oh my. You are special. What a colorful picture we paint!" Will always cherish conversations with Judy.. again, I am digressing.. 

Coming back to the name.. Sundararaman was too complicated for anyone. So came down to Sundar and my thesis advisor asked me "Can I just call you Sun?" and my jaw dropped. Not because of the additional 50% discount that was being asked of my name that had already been cut in half... but because there was a Chinese dude by the same name in the department roster! 

That is when I came up with "My name is Sundar. Sunday with a Rainbow at the end!" 

The ones that do get it right based on that mnemonic say it "Sondaar" which is as close to it as they will ever get. The short sound for the u and the a?

Have given up on it, a long time ago!

You should hear Jr. and the little one introduce me to non-desis.. they introduce me as "my dad soondaar!" 

I laugh on the outside...

Super "saadha" moon

Did go out to take a photo of the supposedly 14% larger 30% brighter "Supermoon"..

It was already close to 9 and the moon was up quite a bit, but it was a "meh" moment.

We were not at some setting where I could bring out the size with a nice foreground. All I wanted was to use the 30% extra brightness to take an easier shot.

It was not as great as hyped. Will try again today closer to moon rise from some nice location for foreground..

Alaska animal sightings..

On our recent trip to Alaska we saw many animals on the Denali Bus tour, on our way to and from Denali, at the wildlife conservatory in Turnagain Arm.. 

You could watch animals cross the desolate roads.. closest we saw this was at Yellowstone. The area of the preserve has to be really huge for this to happen is our guess!

Here are some of the pictures .. 

That was Dall sheep on the steep cliff faces, elk, grizzlies, moose, musk oxen, an owl, Ptarmigan which happens to be the state bird in Alaska, wood bison which is endangered and caribou! 

We are definitely going to plan another Alaska visit for a longer time in a couple of years.. Apparenlty you need to have 20 photographs published to be able to apply for a permit to go inside the park to photograph wild life and it is a lottery system of sorts. Will get there in time!