By Any Other Day

In “By Any Other Name,” Santha Rau discuses the negative feedback on people by the

irresponsible use of language. Rau tells us that after her mother became too ill to teach her and her sister at

home; they were sent to a British school. At their sadly first day of school the headmistress asked their

names and after hearing them; quickly she suggested that they should have English names implying that

Indian names weren’t good enough. The headmistress intentions were to make them feel ashamed of their

culture. This name change was part of the process of assimilation of the British culture. Rau makes clear

that at the time this situation made her feel strange, but soon she got to the conclusion that ‘Cynthia’ was

someone else than Santha was; therefore, she didn’t feel responsible for the action concern to ‘Cynthia’. I

believe that there are negative changes as Santha Rau implies. The irresponsible uses of language had

negative ...