When I Forget My Surname During My Introduction

I read in a school where we have to stay at school all the time. Morning to night we stay there and learn many things. Meaning that everyone who studies there needs to stay at the hostel. There are different blocks in our hostel and we call them houses. The concept of calling them houses was developed so that the school can give a homely environment to the students there. We are engaged in different activities most of the time. This helps in the mental and physical growth of students. There is a school calendar and we need to follow it. We are allowed to go home once or twice a month as mentioned in the annual calendar. They are called either leave weekends or long vacations. During my long vacation, I go to visit different places, relatives' houses and my parent’s office. While going to many places I meet a lot of people. Some of them are the people whom I have already met but some of them are the ones whom I have met for the first time. So they ask me my name and I reply to them with my name only. Then they start asking for my surname also. I feel very weird to tell my surname. One day, I went to my relative’s home. There were new faces to me. The other person there asked me my name and I replied with my name only. The relatives whom I had already met said to me “Surname?” They said that they had a feeling that I was not good enough to tell my complete name as I did not mention my surname. I tried my best to explain that we don’t use our surname at our school.  Then they realized that I was not telling an incomplete name, just telling only my name but they realized that I just got used to the school’s system. This is because in our school we are not allowed to use our surname. And now it has turned into a habit. Instead, we use our roll number and a first name.

Our school is like a mini Nepal. Students are selected from all over Nepal based on their performance. In the olden days there used to be cast discrimination due to which the school decided that no one would use their surname. We don’t have cast discrimination in our school but we still follow the legacy of our school. We sometimes have to tell our surname for many things like if we get selected for a competition which is held with other schools or any competition at national and international level. Some might hesitate to tell their surname as they have a habit of telling their roll number and first name. So we should have to get used to telling our surname when we are outside our school premises but it might take some time for students. As we spend most of the time in school we are habitual in telling only roll number and a first name. Even the teachers are known by their initials. This makes all students feel that they belong there. We all are treated equally by all means. 

Before I joined this school I had a habit of telling surname also, during that time my relatives, friends at school and so on used to ask why my father has a different surname than my mother. Now when I don’t have the habit of telling my surname, people ask me what is my surname. I don’t know what is there in the surname and am not aware of how this surname has been kept. But now I am habitual in telling my name only.