The Story of Troy

During an on-line chat with Eddie one day, I made a comment that was a bit out of character for me (and said completely in jest). This was the chat dialogue that followed:

Eddie: "This is not Artful! Who is this?"

Artful: "Troy."

Eddie: " hahahaa (sidenote-Eddie abhors shorthand such as 'lol' while on-line chatting)-Troy McClure?"

Artful: "No, just Troy...no last name. Troy."

With that exchange, Troy has become my alter ego. We have since filled in Troy's background. He is from East London (as that is the only sort of "English from the UK" that I can speak). He is a bruiser, but he is always good for a larf. Soon enough, whenever Eddie and Missy were around, they would invariably start referring to me as Troy, a funny in-joke that had to be explained to anyone standing around why they were calling an Indian guy by the name of Troy.


Flash forward to Monday. I left the office briefly around midday to grab a takeout lunch from a place close to work. Now, I have a typically hard to pronounce Indian name (at least, for people NOT from India), and I usually have to explain to various cashiers, hosts and hostesses exactly how to pronounce it and how to spell it. On this occasion, I felt inspired:

Cashier: "And what is your name for the order?"

Artful (confidently): "Troy...yup, that's my name."

Cashier: "Oooh! Troy. That is a very strong sounding name!"

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

Artful (not expecting this reaction): "Really? Ummm...why do you say that?"

Cashier: "It just is-it is a lot stronger sounding than Jasmine at least (which turned out to be her name)."

Upon returning to the office, I immediately shared the experience with Eddie, who "hahahaa'd" (lol'd) and seemed extremely pleased. He also confirmed my suspicions that the cashier was, in fact, hitting on me.

As that has never occurred in instances where I gave my real name, I can only assume that her interest was due to the power of Troy.

So if you are out and about in Chicago and see an Indian guy in his 30s who answers to the name of Troy, you might just have met me!