It’s Ahmed and not Ahmad

Correct spelling is one of my pet peeves. It is just one of those things that takes a second to rectify but can have an enormously detrimental fallout if left unchecked.

In this era of the internet, word processors and spell checks, there really is no excuse for sloppy spelling errors.

It is the written language that suffers. With written text associated with rap songs and sms invading our colloquialisms, the sanctity of the written word has been surrendered to expediency.

I guess, along with everything else in the internet era, even language has been 'democratized.' It is no longer the privileged domain of nobility and royalty, whose diaries it were that we typically used to read.

Citizen journalists are the new recorders of socials conditions and blogs are the new diaries. If Anne Frank were living today we would be reading her blog. Much like the media was relying on social networks for information during the recent unrest in Iran.

However, the same technology that has popularized informal language has seemingly put in place a self correcting mechanism too. At least as far as the use of exact spelling is concerned.

Witness the GPS system so widely to aid navigation. Modern technology adheres to the old maxim of 'garbage in, garbage out.'

Swedish tourists in Italy take note. If you write Carpi and not Capri and you adhere to the GPS as if it were Moses leading you to the Holy Land, then you will finally reach an industrial town 650 kilometres from your intended destination of Capri.

The only 'Blue Grotto' in Italy is located in the Gulf of Naples and cannot be mistaken for a factory in Carpi.



The complexity of spelling in the modern age is often amplified by the requirement to 'translate' from one script to another.

There is only correct way to spell my last name (Ahmed) using the Arabic script. The language can be Urdu, Farsi, or Arabic but the spelling is the same.

In the Latin script, several variations exist. Ahmed, Ahmad, or Ahmet are the most commonly used.

For me, misspelling (or is that mispelling?) an individual's name in a formal written interaction, say professional email or letter, is the mother of all spelling mistakes! It is tantamount to showing disrespect. It makes obvious someone's lack of interest in me and all that I am.

My name is part of my identity and is an integral part of me.

If there is one thing that I genuinely own a copyright to then that is my very own name. I have owned it since birth. It has always been Ahmed. Check my passport if you like.

Any contract in which my name is spelt AHMAD is null and void even before my pen touches the paper.