What's in a name - said the bard

Indians have the tendency to put other Indians in a box. The moment we meet another Indian and hear the name, our gray cells start to agitate a la Hercule Poirot. Rakesh Khurana, must be Punjabi. Aditya Mhatre, zaroor ghati hoga. Debasis Basu, eta to Bangali. Suresh Patel, hello gujjubhai! You can further believe that once we decide that the person next to us is a Punjabi or Maharashtrian or Bengali or Gujarati, a further slew of thoughts and pre-determined judgements of that community take over. Welcome to multiple "blink" moments of the Indian character. (Debasis must be eating fish every day)

I have tried hard to think, but cannot figure out why this is so. The only brainwave I had was that we are seeking to find comfort by having knowledge of the person we are talking to without asking any questions. If you read this and feel the urge to contribute, be my guest.

Did you know that hundreds of years ago, commoners did not have any family names? The ruling class prevented them from having one to stop them from banding together. Imagine that a bunch of Agarwals got together and staged a coup against the Gandhis? Well, there were no Agarwals at that time. Only Rakesh, Anil, Maya and others. Then they started getting names from their professions. Consider a village in England where there were 3 Johns. One had to become John Carpenter, one John Smith and the last John Taylor?

I have been living abroad for over 20 years and spared these blink moments when I meet non-Indians (I meet more of these than Indians). Indians that I meet tend to get foxed by my name. I guess Abhishek Kumar would have the same problem. It is hard to put me in a box on the basis of my name alone. Over the years, I have heard different types of questions as well as assumptions about my origin and "box".

Let me try and put this to rest. My name is Ashok Kishore. Kishore is my family name and I am the 3rd generation of Kishores in my line (Perhaps there were more, but we don't know any further back). My children will be the 4th. (If they continue to live in the West, they will not be faced with this question from other Indians.) My father's family comes from a town called Rampur in UP. My mother's family comes from Meerut in UP. Now, all you guys and girls, please put away your "blink" hat!

By the way, I am susceptible to this disease as well, even with Westerners. I know my Dutch from the Germans from the Spanish and so on. Tomorrow I may meet John Taylor and start to think: Hmm .. American, English, Aussie, Canadian (visualise me scratching my head)?

P.S. : Last week in Singapore, my nephew asked me why so many Indian first names started with A. His teacher had asked him. Obviously, I have a theory about this. I am full of theories. But lets hear yours first.