Monday, May 15, 2006

Birth of Thanu

As most of you must have figured Thanu is not my real name. Over the past few months I had couple of people ask what kind of name is Thanu (Yeh kya nam hai Thanu? - Nitin). So here is an effort to explain Thanu.

I had been reading blogs for a long time and then one fine day I decided to try my hand on it. But I didn't want to blog with my real name, the main reason that time was I did not want anyone (read prospective employers) googling my name and finding this blog. Other reason was I did not want anyone from my family stumble upon this blog (not because I bad mouth them here) as then I would loose my anonymity.

So I sat with Blogger.com on my Firefox browser and started scratching my head for a good nick name. After few hours of rigorous thinking I came up with names like Susan, Shilpa, Sitara, Preethy (that was my favorite) but they all sounded like very genuine names. I wanted a name that sounded fake, and viola Thanu was born. I don't even know anyone by that name and I googled it and there were almost next to zero results.

Along with Thanu, came Shekar(husband) and then Veena (sister).

After a month of blogging I told Shekar about the site and asked him to read and give me his views. All he came back was with Shekar? Shekar? You couldn't find a better name (No offense to any Shekar's out there) .

Other than Shekar no one who knew me personally (ROS, I see u rolling your eyes) read my blogs. Till one day I made a huge blunder and commented on my friend's blog signed in as Thanu and commented and added my name. That poor soul was so confused, but finally this soul agreed to keep my little secret.

For everyone who feels deceived and thought Thanu was my real name, I'm so sorry. I can not believe you folks thought that mallu parents would name their daughter Thanu instead of a Beena, Lizy, Mini, Siby, Sophie .... The list goes on.

In this world of blogs I'm a Thanu and love being Thanu.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nahi...So does that mean ur not the Thanu that I knew in School???Man I have been reading th wrong blog...What is this some hindi flick or something???
~Sushil

Archana said...

Looks like I am one of those naive souls who stuck with their real names in tbe blog world :-).

And how naive I am can be understood if you know that I really thought Thanu was your real name (okay, you can stop rolling eyes now) :-P - though I did wonder "Boy, I have never met anyone with that name!"

Anonymous said...

:))

Thank God You Chose Thanu not Dhanu...lol

Kusum Rohra said...

hey you read my thora dikhao thora chupao post, its abt those people who hide their names, but wallah here we have a line of super duper fake names :)))

Thanu said...

$Sushil aka Anon
U are alwaz welcome to get to know this Thanu ;)

$archana
I Did not want people searching for my name and ending up in this blog.

$jaguu
I guess the increased numbers of uuu are a mark of surprise or gussa..

$alexis
I know but Thanu is not so common as susan, shilpa and all the other names that went through my mind. I remember the seeing the apparel store in Thailand, when I searched for Thanu. Njagal pavagal aane... so small scale deception.

$Kusum
Haven't read that, but will go read it soon..

Sarah said...

I like the name Thanu..

hope and love said...

thanu is a beautiful name..

hope ur real name is half as good..:))

Preethi said...

Well... A newcomer to ur blog, but slightly on a high coz u wrote that you like the name Preethy... :)

Anyways.. I completely understand the need for anonymity, it kinda protects ur space.. I sometimes feel I shouldnt have given my real name tooo...

So whats your real name, Thanu?;-)

Dew Drops said...

that is a serious identity crisis, not for u but ur readers ;)

educatedunemployed said...

Hmm, no I don't think you owe it to anyone to tell who you really are and what your real name is? It gives you space for creative and hoenst writing at the same time.It gives you your space and I don't see how you owe that space to anyone else.
Some people think a few email exchanges, regular comments and genuine affection earn them the right to your life.Well they don't.
So please don't apologise.
Oh I just can't get over this new template.It is so you.LOVELY!

quills said...

Thanu is a lovely name and conveys an image of approachability and friendliness. To me anyway. :)

Anonymous said...

Duh!!
It was a good fake thou..
Anyway for a visitor like me(stranger) it doesnt really matter wht name you use...
Firefox Fan...nice

Geo said...

ha ha :_)

Nice one THANU.... :_)

I for one didnt have a clue... I thot u had some Tamil connections and all... and I was wondering, for some people blog is an open book and all... :_D


Now my guess is Lilly... or is it Betty? :_))

Geo said...

"Njagal pavagal aane... so small scale deception. "

=)) another THANUism :_D

Rays Of Sun said...

Hehhehe..U are still my Speed Dial # 7 friend, Thanu:-)

Thanu said...

$Immigrant in Canada
I love Thanu too.

$hope and love
It doesn;t matter I love Thanu

$Preethi
I love the name preethi... Long b4 preity zintha came into existence.
U can always start a new blog.

//So whats your real name, Thanu?;-)
Thanu it is.

$Dew Drops
Thanu or anyting else, I'm still me.

$educatedunemployed
I so agree with everything that u said.
I saw this template and fell in love with it. Every other person had my tic tac toe template.

$quills
Hey I'm still approachable.

$Ravi
Everyone reader on this blog was a stranger once, now I know them all through their blogs. Which means yous should start blogging soon.
I love Firefox. I love the greasemonkey plugin.


$Geo
No it is Thanu..

$ROS
I alwaz will be ;)

Jiby said...

i fell for it...i even put a face to your "thanu sree" name!!! its a nice name...keep it! after reading this i've decided i'll soon be going anonymous and have started a name-finding yajnam!!!

Eclectic Blogger said...

am i the only guy using my original name in my blogs? what the!?

Sayesha said...

Hahahaa! I used to wonder too - Thanu? Yeh kaisa naam hai? :P

Archana Bahuguna said...

Taking this oppurtunity to redeem, my actual name is "Sequera Christina Belacrista". :-) tee hee just kidding ... :-)

In fact, I agree that sometimes to be original being unknown and free is important ... if we know that all our family and friends are reading our blog, we may be conditioned not to write freely. And yes, I did wonder too, what kinda name is Thanu :-).

Thanu said...

$Jiby
I cud still have the same face.
Lemme know if u need help in coming out with a not so fake, but little fake name.

$Eclectic Blogger
Yes, Electic looks like u r the only one.

$Sayesha
Now u know.

$Archana Bahuguna
//"Sequera Christina Belacrista". :-)
Reminded me of Princess Consuela Banana Hammock.
U needn't wonder anymore...

Anonymous said...

Its so easy to guess that you are Xian!

sainathkm said...

hi, That was a real surprizzzzze..

Jagan said...

i like the mallu parents naming their daughter part :-)) ..

Just Jane said...

This mallu friend of mine is an expert at fake names. They sound so realistic you'd never know they weren't the real names of the people he writes about...all in the name of 'protecting privacy' :D

Anonymous said...

chaaaaeeeeeelaaaaaaaahhh!
and so I was always correct ..time to shun the nom de guerre ..who`s the real u then? :D

Sujith said...

Thanu is the name of the LTTE girl who blew up Rajiv Gandhi.

Anonymous said...

Hi, accidentally i came across your blog on your blog name thanu.
i do not know whether you are aware the suicide bomber or a member of their group who was responsible for Rajiv Gandhi's death was Thanu.

After that unfortunate incident my cousin changed her daughter's petname thanu ( short for Thanuja) to something else.

anyway nice blog, enjoyed reading it.

regards
Mini:-))