Many people ask me, what I want to be addressed as! And when I tell them it is Ms. Sameeta Golatkar! I get varied sets of expressions and questions! Well the most common reaction is; I had thought you are a feminist, how can you stand such redundant traditions! Well firstly I don’t call myself a hard-core feminist/feminazi! I just believe every individual should be treated as equal and his/her opinion should be respected! A person whether male or female is entitled to his or her opinion.
Well maybe people don’t get it and that is why they keep questioning and judging my opinions and decisions! The other most common question is! ‘Don’t you think you are losing your identity?’ Well, I still kept my first name, I didn’t get it changed and as far as I know my professional identity is as Sameeta ma’am and Personal identity as Sammy, none involve the surname! So well, no it doesn’t affect me as far as my identity is concerned! If my name was to be changed, I might have raised a little hell, maybe a lot! 😛
So I totally understand when people don’t like their names to be changed, be it last or first! Judging any one of us based on our choices does more harm than good.
My reasons are a combination of ‘something silly’, conventional and something generally considered as immature. Haven’t we all as teenagers doodled our name with our crush’s last name! Those nostalgic innocent memories still bring a smile to my face and so does changing my name post marriage. Yes, like a true teenager from the 90s I feel cute as well as romantic about the change. In fact Mrs. Sameeta Golatkar has a nice ring to it! Not that it felt any bad earlier but this feels more complete, exactly the same as I feel with my other half! Call me silly, but who said I am not!
Also, Sammy G sounds so cool something like Johnny G (a movie I enjoy any given time). And of course I can now happily gloat using the tag-line, ‘G mane Genius”.
Then why not two surnames? That way I, rather my name, can have the best of both worlds. It is just something I can’t wrap my head around! Plus the child will take the father’s last name! And whether I keep just my maternal last name, or keeping them both. I would feel like a piece of puzzle that doesn’t fit, like an outcast, ‘the one with the different last name’. Not a part of the team, and I don’t want it that way!!
Love it or hate it, I chose to take up the change! It wasn’t the easy way out in fact changing procedures officially are a headache! But I don’t mind!
Each one his own!
Which one is yours?
My Perceptions... Literally!! 