The Name is R. Vivek Shanmugam. To know more about my name, go ahead and read the entire post (at your own risk)!

Before we go into all this, let us first see what is the naming convention in Tamil Nadu (the State in India where i hail from). Many Tamils use a “Vilasam”. That gives the initials (a syllable in Tamil) of the person’s paternal ancestors up to, say, seven generations. This keeps every one readily identifiable. For example, in a reasonably sized community Mu. Ko. Ka. Mu. Tha. Er. Ganesh would be the cousin of Mu. Ko. Ka. Mu. Tha. Ka. Ganesh. This form of naming is not used anymore. We just have one initial and that is of the Father. But, when we are at a traditional celebration or function in our Ancestral Temples, they still use this format followed by Chettiar (the Caste Name) to officially call out the Person.

When the initial is expanded it refers to the name of the father, and not the person bearing the name. So the final name in the sequence is the actual given name of the individual and first name stands for the father. For example, C. V. Raman (who won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect) was from Tiruchirappalli, a town in South India. His full name is Chandrashekhara Venkata Raman (C. V. Raman); Raman is the given name of the nobel laureate, and Chandrashekharan is his father’s name. Raman is not the family name of the nobel laureate, as many in Europe and the US mistakenly believe.

Usually the father’s initial is used with the given name. This Initial is expanded and used only in legal documents such as passports, court proceedings and wills. For more details, check this wiki article.

In some parts of Tamil Nadu, we have the habit of naming the first two male children after the Grandfathers and the female children after the Grandmother. So, i am named after my Grandfather. And as you have read about the concept of initials, i was also given the initial of my Dad i.e. R. And so my official name is R. Shanmugam. This is what they entered while registering me in the School. My mom named me Vivek and everyone in the family, the relatives and those who know me in any way other than School call me Vivek.

Now, what does my name mean? The Name Vivek is quite common all over India. It has its origin in Sanskrit and it means  Wisdom or the Power to discern between Right and Wrong. I could also have been named after Swami Vivekananda. Shanmugam is one of the many Names of Lord Murugan, in South India. This name is common only to the Tamil Speaking population of India. Many Tamils will have the name or the variations of the name of this God, like for example Karthik, Saravan, etc.

So two common names make a unique name! I know it must have been too confusing to understand this post. I apologize! The Conclusion here is that I prefer my name to be “R. Vivek Shanmugam” and that is the reason for naming my website this way. You can call me by whatever name you feel comfortable with.

Yesterday, I saw the Movie ‘Poi Solla Porom’ with my Family. Thankfully all the Movies that I watched this week were Good! Poi Solla Porom has an unique theme and is pleasantly delivered. Here’s a Review of the Movie.

The film opens with Sathyanathan (Nedumudi Venu) dreaming about his irony death and his family members are not paying any attention to the situations. The irony is that nobody cares about his death; instead his children & neighbors are more interested in their materialistic needs. His elder son Uppilinathan aka Uppi/Uccha (Karthik) is a Software Engineer, who plans to go abroad for work. His younger son Viswanathan aka Viccha (Om) is a carefree youth, leading a happy life.

Sathyanathan invests all his earnings in a plot of land near Velachery. A real estate dealer (Haneefa) cons them with the backing of the land shark Baby (Nassar), who grabs the plot and claims that he has documents to prove it as his own.

All attempts by Sathyanathan to get back the land end in vain. The Police, Lawyers, Ministers and even the NGOs demand money to help them. And thats the Truth these Days. The younger son brings in Rowdies headed by Royapuram Terror to get back the land. As soon as i heard the name Royapuram Terror, i could not control my laughter. My Sutherland Friends who are reading this blog will understand! A Friend of Mine in Sutherland is a real Royapuram Terror and as soon as i heard that Rowdy telling the name Royapuram Terror only his face came in front of me! And that’s Karthigaram from Pachaiyapas! Well back to the story… All Attempts fail and then Uppilinathan steps in to get back the land.

With the help of his friend Amritha (Piya/Suchitra’s Voice) he enacts a drama featuring Mouli whom everyone calls Daddy. Uppili is aided by his visa agent Asif (Bosskey) – a former accomplice of Baby. And thereby they win back their lost properties, which forms the rest of the story.

It’s great fun fare, but the film moves slowly in the first half and warms up only towards the rip-roaring climax. The realism in the situation and humor of PSP easily strikes a chord.. Though the tit-for-tat solution is not realistic enough, you cant grudge it simply because you can’t get hardcore realistic in the cinematic format while trying to find a solution for land usurping cases.

Karthik, Om and also RJ Balaji score with their natural performances. The Scenes where RJ Balaji chases off the Guys from the Fisheries Department, was really very funny! Piya hasn’t got much to perform, but with her cute looks, she is sure to attract everyone. And I think i have seen her in some ads before. Was that a Mysore Sandal Soap Ad?! Mouli, Nasser and Nedumudi Venu – these versatile actors bring the entire spotlights under them. Songs aren’t so appealing for they go along with the story.

On the whole, Poi Solla Porom is a great and clean entertainer. Watch it without expectations and you will like it for sure.

Yea!!!!!! I got my TOEFL Scores…

And this Excitement is coz i was expecting some horrible scores in 90s or something like that, but Thank God that didnt happen…

Especially after finishing the Test i was very disappointed with the way i did the Speaking Part of the Test… I was completely unprepared for the test at that time. I didnt take any mock tests. Coz everything happened suddenly.

I booked for the test jus before a week. The Test was scheduled for 24th August 2008. No seats in Chennai, so i booked the Test in Trichy. And since i was working at Suth i didnt even get time to study! I bunked! Office took a Pallavan Express Train to Trichy the day before the exam. Ma brother came to pick me up and we went to our Athai’s Home. The next day i went to the Testing Centre well ahead of the scheduled time. Started the Test. I was confident at the beginning of the Test, i.e. during the Reading and Listening Part. Then came the Speaking Part… I did it… But not well enough to get a good score. After finishing the speaking part i wished i could have prepared somewhat better. Then came the writing part, i did okay in it. And when i left the centre, i was very disappointed with myself. I even thought of giving the test again. Anyway katham katham! Cant change whatever has happened. Enna thaan Nadakum Nadakatume! (Sema dialog. I like this dialog very much!) I then took a bus and came back to chennai!

Like i said, i was not happy with my performance. I had a fear that i would get very less marks. But deep inside, i wished i get some good score, something decent enough. I entirely forgot about TOEFL and was lazing around the house when mom called me and said its been long enough since you gave TOEFL. Go check your scores. Well, i said okay and I opened up the TOEFL Site and was surprised to see that the scores were available. I immediately clicked on “Show Scores” and lo… I got 111…! Surprising… Really Surprising!

29 in Reading and Listening… 30 in writing… 23 in Speaking…

The least in Speaking (I knew that before! )

A 111 out of 120 i believe is a decent enough score… But, i really dont know how much TOEFL Scores Universities Expect and why they need these scores for! If you know, do share it with me!