Aackose Mentu Lal: The Name

"What co... lal?", exclaimed a guy, the very first time i introduced myself.
"Well! I am Aackose Mentu Lal and you would be ...?", I reverted.
"That is one hell of a thing i have ever heard in my life... I am ...", he promulgated.
"Ghe!... ", I gloated as if i won a war or so.
Hmm... thats how things go about with my name. This name will surely ring the wierdness bells in your mind. I don't blame you... Its quite innate... :) I guess. Well one thing for sure this guy turned out to be my best friend throughout my academic life. Let me drive you through the logical rationality behind this name being chosen for my human body.
I was born as the eldest son to a small, middle class family settled in Kochi(Kerala, India). My dad is a lawyer practising at High Court Of Kerala while my mom, though an MSW degree holder, decorated the homemakers post... donno why... But lemme tell you one thing... my dad was an intellectual in the making, leaving with him a cognitive and profounded knowledge arsenal which even i could not manage in 20 years down the line.
As far as my name was concerned, he really wanted it to be unique, rarified and be first in class attendance always...Hell Noooooo... But there was a restriction on the cards for him. According to our christian tradition ... by the way i am a christian but not biased to any religion, I consider all gods same and all people equal and dont wanna spur a communal riot or something... so according to our traditions, i was supposed to have the name of my grandfather .Oh boy! what kinda of eldritch rule was that... god knows... anyways... my grand dads name was Kuriackose. Now thats called a name by friend... in Kerala. Dad recollected... first in class, rare name, grandfathers name... Hmm he must have had a hell of a time with this. All his LKG, UKG class lessons must have started playing mind games with him. hmm... letters floating around... jumbled words, scramblers... donno whether he had played these games.... sounded celestial to me.. Kuriackose, mathematically speaking can have 10! possible combinations in the world of Permutations and Combinations in Mathematics, if i am not mistaken. Oh my god... was he practically skinning my grandad alive... Finally after the end of this feisty Word War with his conscience, he decided to cut my grandads name into two. That left him with a 50% chance to find the name for me, erp... probability theory, mathematics.. Kuri & ackose .
Well to be first in the class a name should surely start with "a", rite.... Well akuri was wierd... sounded like chineese i guess..Aguri or so, however aackose wasn't... well atleast that was how he felt it. Frankly speaking... if i was able to speak some english, i would have asked him for the definition of the word "wierd"... unfortunately, i was wrapped in a white cotton cloth, lying by my mother...hands held like a prisoner... thankfully not cuffed... and with a small window opening near the face... allowing me to enjoy the white ladies in the room...oops... Well either way... i was destined to be "Aackose"- the great... as in "Alexander -the great"... hehe!!
The middle name was taken from the ancient Greek history books - a Greek god of War... Did i kick him the first time saw him..? Donno... either way... War became a part of my life... and Mentu, the Greek God Of War was reborn from the ashes... after centuries... i guess.. To prove my relationship with my dad and mom... i believe... he had to append "Lal" to the end of my name.... my dads and by default, my mom name had "Lal" at the end...... Hmm... Aackose Mentu Lal... not bad eh!... "Holy!..." i am a dead man... wait until i enter my school.
I even had thoughts of changing my name during the later period of life... but my insights told me not to do so. My Grandpa, my dad, my mom, my younger bro... just 1 1/2 yrs. younger.... and all my relatives...they all loved me far more than anyone... I can never tolerate any tears in their eyes... i finally decided not to change my name, my identity... oops! not the one that you were thinking.. just my name... :)

And thats how Aackose Mentu Lal, became a part of this world.