My name is Gitanjali Meher Swamy. Thats pronounced GEE (as in giddy, not gina) Tan (as in tandem but with a softer t sound) JA (as in jargon) LEE (as in leeway). If I wanted you to pronounce it as Jidanhalee, I'd spell it that way..... So you think my name is bad, huh, try Murlipattanam Sitarama Subramaniam Swamy Gitanjali, which is how it would be if I maintained the true south indian naming convention; my dad is south indian (the real kind. Just because Columbus had a bad sense of direction dosen't mean you take it out on a whole continent!). Anyway, Gitanjali means " a song offering to god". I have no idea why my parents named me that, because I can't sing for nuts. I have it on the authority of close friends that my singing can clear the house real fast. In addition, there is nothing religious about me, I'm quite an agnostic. However, I do find it interesting to examine religious philosophy. My second name is Meher. Meher is persian in origin and is attributable to the fact that my mother is parsi. It means "gift", and my mother swears it was given to me before they knew what a terror I'd turn out to be. She says if they knew better they'd have called me somemeher!, which mean "some gift !" (kidding!). However, the persians obviously knew a little about equality of the sexes, because Meher is a unisex name; I have an uncle named Meher.

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