Little Stories 65 : What is in a Name?

On the first day of my new work in Damansara, my supervisor asked me to create a fake Facebook account for us to communicate among our team members. I asked him, "I shouldn't use my real name?" and he said "Just create anything-lah. Make it fast."

I didn't know creating a fake account with a fake name and a fake picture profile would take time. I was left staring at the monitor for awhile and came out with a name, "Aliya A.". Since then, I've heard several people called me "Aliya" or "Liya" - in conversation, each time,  I looked twice to make sure that they were talking to me.

I feel like a stranger. 

Who is this Aliya ? 

But then again, what is in the name that take a hold of our life? A sign of recognition ? A glimpse of existence? Being in a name other than mine created a whole new surrounding of total invisibility. No one can Google my name and learn about my life on the net *except for the HR people I guess, they called me Azah and I cringed each time. It almost feels like liberation. This time, I don't want to be known by what I did, but I wanted people to notice me by what I designed instead.