On my first day in class at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, a classmate from North India asked me, “Is your name pronounced as ‘Sanjayya’, like that Congress party president, Sanjivayya?” No, it is not ‘Sanjayya’ but ‘Sanjaya’ pronounced with the last ‘a’ half-uttered. What does that mean, she asked me. You know, I said to her, in Sanskrit there is a half ‘a’ or ‘uh’ sound. Like in Ashoka pronounced as ‘Ashokuh’ or Rama pronounced as ‘Ramuh’.