Anand Shotiwoth. That's yours truly's name.

Is there any meaning behind that exotic-sounding name? Hmm.. let's see… in Thai (or rather, Sanskrit), “Anand” means “moving forward”. Correct me if i'm wrong, as I've been told this since I was very small. You may ask what “Shotiwoth” means - to tell you the truth, I have no idea as well. “Shotiwoth” is my family name, or people call it surnames, so my children would have “Shotiwoth” in addition to their names in future.

Sometimes, my name made people confuse with who I really am. I've been having this problem since I was small, when people saw my name, they were expecting an Indian - so when people saw somebody not Indian responding to that name, they get shocked, and ask me whether I'm a Malay (I really looked like a Malay during my teens - being exposed to sun, spoke fluent Malay). When I told them that I'm Thai, again, they got shocked, and asked how long I've been here in Malaysia - made me sound like an alien. I think somehow, I got used to the idea of me being an Indian in a Malay body.

Now, it's more or less the same story, except the body part is different now. You guys might have known by now that my wife is a Chinese. The first time when I met her mother, she was pleasantly surprised that I didn't actually look like a Thai - her expectation was, again, a darker shade like Malay - as I was fairer now (probably being in air-cond office had something to do with this). Recently, I went with my wife to her colleague's house, and we were chatting happily in Hokkien (I speak Hokkien, remember? :twisted:), when my wife actually popped this question to her colleague: Do you know that he's (referring to me) is a Thai? The colleague was surprised, as she has expected me to be Chinese (speaking fluent Hokkien and stuffs). Right… now I'm a Indian-sounding-name guy in a Chinese body.

What do you guys think of me? :)

By the way, go ask Nee Shen whether or not I look like a Malay when I was in Penang Free School.

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