First Name?

Ist day in my blog. My first brush with the language English itself is interesting.

When I opened my account in Google I was prompted to give my first name. I have only one name that is the first and last name. But in most of the applications and forms this provision is made. I thought I would leave it blank. But the site did not allow me proceed. It said that First name can not be left blank. I thought it was the expansion of my initial. So I gave my father’s name (Seshan) as the First name. After all the rituals the web page portrayed a welcome message.”Welcome Mr. Seshan”. The web site welcomed my father who is living in the other world.. This is the problem faced by every south Indian. We do not have first name. The name given to us by our parents first, is the only name till we breathe our last.