In My Head

Our whole family listens to NPR. Today Grad student Gillian and I somehow began discussing the pronunciation of Lakshmi Singh's name. For starters, I have never bothered Googling or Wiki-ing her name. And for another thing - in my mind's eye (and I have a very vivid imagination, so I've been told), Lakshmi Singh looks (now, past tense) Asian. Asian, as in, I assumed her name was Lak Shmi Sing. Maybe a Chinese/Vietnamese type of Asian. In my head, she took on a kind of new millennium-Connie Chung appearance.

So Gillian brings up the mispronunciation of her name (because, according to one linguist to another, the Asian name should be pronounced Lahk, not Lak). And then we began mulling over the ethnic origin of her family. And Gillian thought Indian. I thought Connie Chung Asian. All this, we discussed while perusing the Labor Day sales racks at the mall department stores.

Upon my return home, I received an email from Gillian, with a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi_Singh and this Lakshmi Singh quote:

"...Some of our friends in the South Asian community have expressed their dismay with the pronunciation of my name. But I have not heard any complaints specifically from South Asian residents of the Caribbean (such as Trinidad, where my father was born and Lakshmi is pronounced LACK-shmee)..."

Her father is Indo-Trinidadian, and her mother is Puerto Rican.

So there you have it. We learned something worthwhile during our time at the mall today.

I feel enlightened.

By the way:

Not at ALL how I imagined her.
Now I have to rethink her face and voice and humor and EVERYTHING.