How I got my name "PALKOL"?

Hi folks, I have thought of starting a blog ages ago. I rushed to get an URL which holds my current identity among larger proportion of people at DA-IICT, i.e palkol. Oh! lucky, I was able to get the URL I wanted. Actually, I was looking for a URL, palakollu but I was really surprised to find someone already has that. I was very anxious when I was registering for a URL on blogger whether I would be lucky to get this one or not. Many of you, who read this post, might already be thinking “what the hell is this guy trying to tell?".

I was having food with my friends and I found someone coming from a distance. I spotted him and when he was approaching, I said, "Hi, Parit". He replied, "Hi, Palkol". I was really annoyed and questioned him why even he started calling me Palkol. I thought this name was limited only to few of my acquaintances at DA-IICT, but only then I realized I was wrong. The reply was, “hey man, why do you get frustrated when I call you by your name”. I said, “who the hell did tell you that my name is Palkol". Then he points out the excerpts from what he had learnt in his anthropology course. He was told by the anthropology professor that South Indians carry town names along with their actual names. I was bowled once again. I don't know, if such a tradition exists but in my case it was absolutely true. Now a days, there are hardly any guys who know me as 'Santosh'. They all call me 'palkol'.
That's the reason why I had to rush for a URL that starts with palkol. :-)

Finally I was back to my room and thought how it all started. As far as I remember, this was how it all began.

Those were the early days of my first semester at DA-IICT. It was a completely new place with a new environment and new friends. I was living with my 1st roomy. (I’m infamous for kicking roomies out). There were at least 10 people in my room. My room was then a hub for discussion on every God damn thing in the world. There was a senior in the room. We were asked to give introduction about ourselves. One by one every one had their turn. Everyone other than me was from a city, Hyderabad, Vizag or Vijayawada. I was the only one from the town of 'Palkol'. So, I told my details (name, school etc) and told I was from Palakollu. Hardly anyone there knew that place. I really felt bad. I was asked to tell them the exact location of 'Palkol'. I quickly replied "350 km from Vizag, 470 km from Hyderabad and 130 km from Vijayawada and is located in West Godavari district". That wasn't the end of the matter there.

Some time later, we planned to go for a movie. I remember it was Terminator 3. It was then, the discussion erupted. Phani started asking me if there were any movie theatres in Palkol. I then explained him the facts that my town had a population of 80k and there were 14 movie theatres in Palkol. Then he said "just 14, our Vizag has nearly 50". Then I've told him and revealed a shocking fact that theatres/population (T/P) ratio of my town was far better than Vizag. He was shocked to know about the passion of Palkol people for movies.

On the other day, we went out for shopping. Then we haven't got a bus for nearly 45 min. Then someone started the discussion on access to various places in a city. I told them that it hardly takes 15 min to reach from one place to any other in the town of 'Palkol'.

On the very next day, we went to a restaurant and were shocked to find sky high prices of dosa in the State of Gujarat. Then I told everyone there that one cat get a dosa for Rs.2/- in the town of 'Palkol'.

In the following month there were heated discussions on various topics and in most of them I was could relate some or other aspect to the town of 'Palkol' and how things were better there.

It was only the nostalgia I had for my town, made me bring 'Palkol' into picture in the discussions. But, unfortunately every one misunderstood. Everyone felt I was Palkolomaniacal. They just wanted to some how relate me permanently to the great town of Palkol.
Thats It, they started calling me 'Palkol'.

In the beginning it was not so serious and with the assistance of my seniors they were successful in establishing my name as 'Palkol'. It’s not very uncommon to find people who lived with me for 3 years without knowing my original name. One day when I was at home (palkol) during my holidays the phone rang. My little cousin lifted the phone. The person at he other end asked if Palkol was there in the house. My cousin was really confused and didn't know what to answer. Till then he thought Palkol was a town, and was surprised when someone asked to call 'Palkol'.
On the evening the same person called up and to my surprise he was my friend Satish. Infact, we worked together in various projects in our college. Even this guy forgot my actual name i.e Santosh.
Yesterday, one of my seniors was leaving the campus. All his classmates already left. So, he asked me to collect his passport and mail it to him. I knew him since two years. He noted my mobile number with name 'Palkol'. Only then, I knew, even he thought my name was Palkol.

So, this was how I got to live with adopted name 'Palkol' and not 'Santosh'. Now, some of you who read this blog might be thinking, "This guy says he dislikes being called Palkol but why does he still choose his blog URL starting with Palkol". Here is the answer. Some things, in life have to be accepted irrespective of whether you like them or not. More people know 'Palkol' than 'Santosh Saladi' and thats the reason why I chose 'palkol' over other IDs.