Those with lands to their name and pride in their hoary clans would call themselves Nadars. You have no idea about the caste order of those days.
Did he also have a surname? Nadar? Well, don’t ask me that. If someone looks up in surprise and asks me about it, then I proceed to tell them its story.
I don’t, I prefer to use my full name everywhere. Why don’t you just call yourself ‘K.V.Nadar’, they ask. My daughter and son-in-law are disgruntled to hear me use my full name everywhere. I have a house in the suburbs of Nellai where I live with my wife and daughter. It has been four years since I have come back to Tamil Nadu after retirement. However, the Tamils and Malayalees there used to ask me about my name. To their ears, our names are all the same. After getting my engineering degree, my first job was in Bhilai, far to the north. From the day he gave me this name till the day he died, for twenty-seven years, he kept talking about my name. Why, I have never met a single person who has even heard of this name. I haven’t met another man with this name. No one in my caste or kin has such a name. No one in my family has had this name before me. No, it’s not my clan-god’s name or anything like that. If you want my full name, it’s K.Vanangaan Nadar. It means ‘he who does not bow’, a stubborn stiffneck. Posted in கட்டுரை, மொழியாக்கம், Translation | Tagged தாகூர், Tagore Vanangaan Ī translation of B.Jeyamohan’s Tamil short story Vanangaan (2015).