Or should that read mutilations of a name? Anyway, read on.

If you write my name on Google search bar, in all probability you will see a helpful suggestion from it asking ‘Did you mean ‘snail’? Any time you try mentioning my name on WhatsApp, you will again find it automatically gets corrected to snail. Apparently they have never heard of a Shail (rare) only snails (plenty).

This matter of ‘snail’ in lieu of ‘shail’ was discovered by some of my new friends in recent times while searching for my blog, Shail’s Nest. You can imagine the mirth and jokes that followed (and still does) in its wake. ‘Snail, look this way please!’ said a friend of mine only yesterday holding her phone up to take a picture, then quickly mock- corrected herself. ‘Oops, I meant Shail!’ and dissolved into laughter. Come to think of it, it IS funny.

The courier people though have a different name for me. They knock on my door and ask if ‘Sahil’ Mohan lives here. Alternatively they call up and go ‘Sahil Mohan?’ I have seen many a receipt with my misspelt name on it. Sometimes though there is a change in the order of things, I mean the alphabets, and I end up being addressed as ‘Shali’. It’s a free for all, apparently. You just have to give them the relevant consonants and vowels and they then choose the order in which to use them.

Just the other day, I had a different kind of experience. I was waiting for Uber and as I was about to get in the driver asked me, ‘Are you Sahil?’ I smiled and said it was ‘Shail’. A couple of minutes later, while on our way, the driver apologised for mispronouncing my name. I thought that was sweet of him. That’s okay, I assured him graciously. ‘It’s an unusual name you know,’ he added by way of explanation, ‘One doesn’t get it a lot, that’s why this happened.”

In a different sort of move, recently some friends have taken to calling me Shailu. That’s one extra vowel more than I need. With already two in hand, why would I need another? Can’t say I am too fond of the name but their generosity in allotting an extra vowel to me cannot be brushed aside lightly. Also it might look rude if I returned it as something superfluous and not really welcome. After all, they are friends! Grin and bear it seems to be the only solution.

While writing this post, I was frequently interrupted by my iPad who very gallantly kept correcting the misspelled names to the correct one, Shail. There you go Google, something for you to learn from. Know your long term user instead of trying to change her into a snail.

©️ Shail Mohan 2024