U n I in this beautiful universe.. !!

I and my teammate Shyam were talking today about this new concept of Social Security Number(SSN) introduced recently in india. I am generally quite apprehensive about such things involving paper work and indian government.But it had been quite a boring day so far so just to alleviate my boredom, I had asked him what this is all about. He explained to me that currently when a person relocates from one city to another while changing the company, if his newly created Provident Fund(PF) account is in different zone then for getting his money transferred between these accounts involves a lot of paper work and passing them up and down, So with SSN being related to the account holder rather than accounts, it would be easier for the government to track and club the money for these accounts together.

On his explanation I blurted "Hey this is similar to having an identification number for the resident of a country as they have in US". "Yeah may be later on they wud be doing it as SSN is a 14 digit number, they may use it for that." He said.

"But it may also happen that by the time this thing is implemented, count of our population is not able to be represented by that 14 digit number", I said jokingly."Then what will happen where will we reside?", He threw another doubt out of his inquisitiveness.

"May be beneath the ground as well, like we have made multi storeyed skyscrapers above the ground, similarily we may be making mutli story earthscrapers beneath the ground." I said shurgging my shoulders and making a serious face.
"And yeah it may also happen, that those people living beneath will then evolve differently from the people living on or above the ground as the environmental conditions will be different for them and there will no more be racism or castism based on color or creed but it would be more about being from the underworld(the world under-ground) or not ..", He added even more seriouly.

"With so many people to live and so less of a space, we will have to explore our galaxy.. First one to be attacked upon and engulfed will be our dear Mamujaan(Maternal-uncle) Moon.", I said smiling sarcastically.

"Yeah and all gigantic MNCs will have offices over there and some fortunate people will be sent to onsite on moon. Going to United States will not have that charm any more, it would be more like going on a deputation and even Americans will drool over onsite oppurtunities." He said.
"Poor guy..still having intact desires for onsite even after missing several opportunities out of bad luck..May he get one soon... Amen.. !!", I prayed silently.

Having quite a religious/Bollywood oriented attitude I couldn't help thinking about role of moon in our culture/movies , I said "Hey then women will no more have to wait for the glance of full moon for breaking their Karwa Chauth fast as they can have accurate information on mobile from people across the planet and plan accordingly and same thing is applicable for Id-ul-zuha", I said.

Mobiles.. yes it was going to be next topic for discussion for us.
"Then if you are on moon, you can still stay connected with people on the earth having activated your interplanet roaming.And then hutch(now vodafone) network's all favorite pug will also have wings to make him enable to follow us when we move from one planet to another .. " I said and we both bursted into laughs and Sung together

"You and I in this beautiful universe.. :)"

Cafe Mocha.. !!

After a tiring shopping spree, we thought we should relax for a while and enjoy a sip of coffee. But as usual the population of india was resisting us to do this.. I mean there was no vacancy inside the coffee bar. So we had to wait for a while . Finally being the most caring guy of the group (at least pretending so ..I was with bhabhi, so ought to show some decency .. :) ) , i talked to the attedant there and grabbed a seat for 4 people. I thought i should order something, So predecided in my mind that i will have Cafe Mocha (Pronounced as "Mauka"). as i was pretty sure of its taste and i liked it when i accidentally had it the last time, i asked everybody for their choices. Seeing everybody's blank faces suggesting no other option, i asked them to try this one. But Mr. Maheshwari (My Friend,philosopher & guide ) showed his decisiveness and got stuck to his cold coffee.

So finally i decided to make an order for 3 hot and one cold coffee. I was in my thoughts and reached to the altar.. i mean the place where they take these orders. after all making the order was not that easier than making confessions.. :)

So after waiting for some time my chance came, the sophisticated person asked "Your order sir..!!" . I was quite sure of my order. Generally u r not allowed to come unprepared at the altar or else u will have to face sever rebuke.. No no. noone else is going to do this to you. It's your innerself which will eat up your self confidence for not doing this thing in the right manner.. Neways ..."Yeah, 3 Cafe Mocha, "Mauka" this is how it is pronounced right..?(God. why don't these guys put the phonetics in front of the names...) and one Cold cafeate(I had just read it in the Big menu pasted on the wall under their cold cafe section..)" I replied. Now the next thing was the size of the serving.. "Medium please", i added; as my perception was that small is small. and Large is large so i preferred to go with the medium ones..Here comes the next unexpected attack.. "Would you like to have it with cream or chocolate sauce sir..!!". . For God'sake.. how can i know how u want your coffee to be served . "I don't know how will it taste " i said innocently. "With what u people generally serve your coffee with..".. "It's on you sir. With what u want it.."Mr. Sophisticated said wryly.. My innerself had started its meal.. "i dont want any of them" I said. "As you wish Sir..", the priest of altar said finishing up with my order and i returned to the seat thwarted..
When the order came.. The plate containing 3 bowls , each 2 times the size, i conceived of medium size coffee mug, was brought to us.. everybody was looking at me interrogatively. There was nothing i could say..suddenly my eyes stopped at a rack in which three mugs were placed .. i think they were indicating the sizes i.e. small, med and large.. I realized my mistake and heard burps of my innerself..

Now being a logical guy, i must admit that i am supposed to have this much of presence of mind while placing an order to check with the sizes or the taste or the flavours.. That's correct. But i was able to sense something else that was lacking.

It was not just my ignorance that led me to this situation.. somewhere in corridors of my heart, i was lacking self confidence.. i was hesitant to ask that guy clearly, be it about the sizes or the flavours or the pronunciation of the name of the coffee..Why was it happening.. Was Mr. sophisticated not helping a novice...Was i trying to be a coffee conoissuer who knows everything about coffee.. or i din't want to show this to anyone that how much i do know about all this stuff so better be silent or else my cards will be on exhibition..Why..??

Whatever was the reason.. One thing was very sound and clear to me.. We indians are being forced to do things in awe of them as if we are nonexistent. and everything else that is alien is greater in every aspect so we should take that without even knowing about that..We don't know anything about the orgin of Coffee, Valentines Day, Thanks Giving .. But still we are getting into the coffee bars.. trying new recipes with our hit n trial approach, celebrating valentines, TG..

Actually i dont' have any issue with accepting all these things but my point is that, none of these things should come at the cost of self pride, pride for our culture, our country, something we are deeply associated with. Respect for other cultures, other things is a great thing to do .. but before that we should get to know about our culture, its values and should feel proud about it..and then only we would be able to analyse and accept things rather than getting flown with the wind..

So guys, next time getting into a coffee bar is going to be a great learning experience for me.. because i won't just enjoy their coffee. but their culture as well.. n then only will see why should i prefer Cafe Mocha over cafe Latte or our very own Cappucino... :)