FIRST NAME, SURNAME AND MY NAME TAG

Occasion: Sherbourne Residence, University of Warwick, somewhere between Autumn and Winter of 2013. All staff are in the room 10 minutes before our morning shift starts at 1000 as usual.

Lynne the Residence Manager walked into the room and announced ‘’Here are your name tags ladies’’ and immediately called up names of each staff that just started working there since couple of months ago and that includes me whom the only man in the room which was why she forgot to mention ''and gentleman'' after the 'ladies' part. By the time my name was called, I was a bit in a disbelief as why she called up my late father’s name and not my first name. I know it’s a grey sky this morning when I pedal to work where the sun hides himself somewhere up in the clouds, but I still clearly have remembered that she’s calling everyone else by their first name but mine with my surname.

Politely responding to her call as there’s no one else in the room who didn’t get their name tag except for me, I quickly reach out my right hand to hers and accept it with honour despite the confused recognition. And to make it worse, she even got my father’s name spelt wrong. This is more like killing two birds not with one stone but with a barrel of bullets from the Browning M2 Aircraft version of the .50 millilitre calibre machine gun used in the final instalment of the 2008 Rambo film series to shoot down the whole battalion of Burmese soldiers. During the time, I was just less than six months arrived in the UK and still adapting myself in many ways with the local culture and customs that I live with, but this name tag thing really makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable.

The actual name tag with incorrect spelling. They have the new corporate style Warwick Accommodation logo now unlike this one from the 2013.

As far as I concern, the British call someone by the surname to show respect and first name to show a much more casual setting especially the person being called is younger in age and even, so the surname would be addressed together with the title Mister, Miss or Missus but not in my case where ‘Adnan’ is the name they call with no title whatsoever.

But keeping it professional, I put my feelings aside and took the name tag with half pride and pinned it on the left side of my chest just for identification and working ethic.

A month passed by and during this one lunch time when I need to go to the staff room to pick up my stuff and heading home 10 minutes before one o’clock in the afternoon and I saw Lynne in the room with her supervisors enjoying their lunch. I gave a quick smile to them and that was when she said ‘’Azfar, I didn’t know Adnan is your father’s name, oh my, we’ve been calling not by your first name for many months now. We’re so sorry Azfar’’.

Me, showing a bit of shock, replied ‘’Yeah, that is right. But you can just call me by the name of Adnan. It’s nice sometimes when my dad’s name being spoken out again after a while’’. I did not expect any more from her when she got herself up and step away from her lunch, walk together beside me and said ‘’No that is not right. We have made a mistake and should call you by your first name just like everyone else. We’ll make sure you get a new name tag. From today onwards, you will have to teach me how to pronounce your name properly’’ while muttering my name a couple of times like a mantra hoping to get it right this time and that it will stick onto her mind and not committing the same mistake again.

''That’s perfect Lynne. The way you pronounced my name. That’s very nice of you. See ya!’’ while walking passed the door and another glass door out of the building before she changes her direction to her car parked on the other side of the building while I quickly ride my push bike that I have leaned onto the wall beside the door earlier and pedal away like a free pigeon. Okay well, so she did care. Good. At least I got a new name tag now.