My name is Kovid and I'm not a virus, says Holidify co-founder Kovid Kapoor

Holidify co-founder Kovid Kapoor says a cake bought for his 30th birthday spelled his name as 'Covid'. (Image credit: Twitter)

Before 2019, Holidify co-founder Kovid Kapoor never had to explain to people what his name meant. But with the rise of coronavirus and Covid, things took a drastic turn for him.

Kapoor, whose Twitter bio reads, "My name is Kovid and I'm not a virus", on Wednesday took to Twitter to share his experience of travelling abroad. The twitter thread has since gone viral.

And for those wondering, "Kovid" means scholar or learned, clarified Kapoor. "Comes in the Hanumaan Chaleesa," he added.

Went outside India for the first time since COVID and got a bunch of people amused by my name.

Future foreign trips are going to be fun!

— Kovid Kapoor (@kovidkapoor) January 4, 2022

Recollecting the problems Kapoor has faced with this name so far, he said, "For my 30th bday, my friends ordered a cake - and Amintiri automatically assumed that it's some kinda joke, and it should be spelled with a C not a K."

Kapoor claims he has to use a fake name at Starbucks after a guy handing him the coffee pointed out the name to everyone else and they burst out laughing.

He was also tagged in a newspaper cutting at a store. "When someone in a remote village in UP saw my old photo, from a newspaper, after my IIT selection - from 2008! - at some store, and decided to tag me on Twitter (sic)," Kapoor said.

The Holidify founder also recounted when a Zoomcar customer care guy called him, to process some pending refund, and told him that he had been laughing in the room with the other customer care folks before the call.

In the Twitter thread, Kapoor also explained how his name does not have the same pronunciation as Covid. Well, almost.

I'm quite used to really enunciate my name, stressing that it's a soft D and not a hard D. And to quickly whip out my PAN card from my wallet, just to prove that it REALLY is my name.

— Kovid Kapoor (@kovidkapoor) January 5, 2022

For those on this thread, wondering what my name actually means - it means scholar / learned.
Comes in the Hanumaan Chaleesa.

Also, it's pronounced as कोविद not कोविड

— Kovid Kapoor (@kovidkapoor) January 5, 2022

The hilarity continued as Kapoor went on to share many more snippets where his name became a topic of interest.

When Google though that I misspelled my name, in my own Gmail search ‍ pic.twitter.com/sNtZs3GmUb

— Kovid Kapoor (@kovidkapoor) January 5, 2022

The Kovid + Corona joke that noone ever seems to stop talking about. pic.twitter.com/cJ5VsHzhD0

— Kovid Kapoor (@kovidkapoor) January 5, 2022

His name aside, Kapoor also took time to indulge in some humour with his re-discovered "celeb" status. "And yes, I might tire of replying to comments here, but please DM me if you have any more Kovid-COVID jokes, I am running out of them in my repertoire," he tweeted.

Dude could get free publicity for next 100 years on any startup he creates

— ScottGMikael (@batanahitochata) January 5, 2022

Then give this one some free publicity