The Charm of 3 Letters.

Andhraites are the ultimate alchemists. They are in a forever quest to turn anything into gold. Be it coal, land, power, pickle or their sesquipedalian names. Observing the man in the white shirt, white pant and matching white shoes is the easiest way to sniff the next big thing in any domain. That’s exactly how, I figured why SRK likes to be called SRK. And believe it or not, it’s got everything to do with the mystical power of the Three Letter Abbreviation (TLA)!

Late Tamilian heartthrob MGR pithily summed up the potency of the TLA with the ‘Moonrezhuthil en moochirukkum, adhu mudindha pinaalum pechirukkum’ song in the movie Deiva Thai. The everlasting spell cast by his diminutive is proof of his theory that ‘3 letters have a life beyond life’.

Perhaps Franklin Delano Roosevelt was privy to this concealed truth when he decided to milk his initials ‘FDR’ in the 1936 Presidential Election. He gave his then Republican opponent Alf Landon, a shellacking, by trouncing him with the third highest margin in a hundred years!

This insight proved very useful for John F. Kennedy in the 1960 Election and no wonder he had no hesitation in switching to the more endearing ‘JFK’. His opponent Richard Milhous Nixon somehow failed to see the merit in deploying ‘RMN’ in his campaign. And may be that’s why he’s still seen as a joyless, frosty leader.

Chandrababu Naidu is guilty of committing the same error. Being the custodian of NTR’s party TDP (another three letter word), he chose to take the path less travelled. He chose to play up his full name. His opponent Y. Rajasekhara Reddy spotted the chink in Naidu’s armour and ambushed him in 2004 with YSR. The rest is itihaas.

So what’s with 3? Why are people increasingly opting for names like GMR, GVK, OLX, KKR, CSK & STR? Indian numerology offers a clue. ‘Three’ connotes planet Jupiter, the god of gods, and it stands for power, prosperity and prestige. Understandably, entities donning TLAs are cockier and are prone to mouthing the SRK punch line: Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahin, namumkin hai!