What's in a name?

I'm doing enrollment and visa requests for two candidates from Sri Lanka. 

Their names are both unpronounceable, and 14 and 15 syllables respectively. Which may seem a lot to you, until you consider that my dad, who is also Sri Lankan but born and bred in Malaysia, has a name of 23 syllables.

Seems to be a national epidemic. Thank God for the copy and paste function. 

I think if Lankans are required by law to shorten their names, it would improve their national productivity, and hence increase their GDP by a huge percentage. Besides the time taken writing them down, don't forget the amount of time, toner and ink used in the printing of bank statements, tax forms, phone bills, etc.

People who work in and with the country often mention how long it takes to get things done, and how inefficient Sri Lankans seem. I've just discovered the cause behind this tarnished reputation. Its all the time taken writing down names.

Imagine being a class monitor in school, taking names of those that misbehave. Never mind education standards in Singapore, THAT'S how you induce stress at a young age.

My dad gets evil stares from government personnel who need to fill out his name in official forms. The other complication is the fact that most offical forms don't have enough squares to fit his whole name.

There are many things you are thankful to your parents for. Most of them are quite common, i.e. roof over your head, food in your stomach, your first Barbie/Transformer, introducing the birds and the bees as briefly as possible and not going into the details of how many different ways mom and dad can do it.

I have a unique one. I am eternally and unsurpassably grateful to my father for disregarding naming conventions and shortening mine to just 7 syllables.

Happy Father’s Day, daddy.