(Not sure if you'll see this reply this late, but...)

The situation regarding ID's is a mess, but I believe I'll be able to fly, to the US or wherever, without issues (though I haven't done so yet).

The reason is that, India being a multicultural country, our central government that issues passports assumes a firstname-lastname pattern as well. And back when I got the passport, I didn't yet understand the firstname-lastname concept, and just followed the passport office employee's instruction: "don't leave that 'surname' field empty, that's for your father's name". I was curious why the heck someone would label that field as surname, but just took it as part of bureaucracy. And so, I have a passport to the name "myname fathersname".

The "mess" I referred to in the first line is about how different ID's have my name in different forms: let's say my name was David and my dad's is Michael. I have government issued id's that say my name is:

* David

* David M.

* M David Michael (yes, really)

* M David

(and possibly others that I'm forgetting)