Michael Jackson kicked the bucket. Farah Fawcett passed on. Nandan Nilekeni resigned from Infosys so he could jump into the public domain in a career move that was widely hailed (and would've got more newsworthiness if the King of Pop hadn't chosen the same week to get over-injected in). u00a0 The monsoons were diverted. The Bandra-Worli sealink was inaugurated. And the Prime Minister made his three hundredth announcement. Phew! All in all, rather a busy week, one would say. Somewhere, hidden in all those screaming headlines and death hypotheses, was a little article that almost went unnoticed except by my joblessly beady eyes, that were glazed over by the minute details of Jacko's non-prescription stomach contents. Every Indian now has to have a UTN. Forgot what it was exactly, but it was another mandatory number that every citizen needed to wield when filing taxes. Ah! The full form comes to me now Unique Transaction Number. Dunno why we need it now, especially when one already has a PAN number, and a Service Tax number and a Sales Tax Number. u00a0 The numbers, that the average Joe has to remember these days is getting ridiculous. You get a PIN number for your ATM. You get a TIN number for your telephone banking. And you get an I-PIN to transact on the internet. Now consider the ordinary guy on the street who has at least three bank accounts! You get a Customer ID number for every loan that you chalk up. A transaction code for every, well, transaction you do. A depository services ID number. A credit card number. A telephone number. A landline telephone number. An internet sign-up kit number. A car registration number (and oh, another Customer ID for that new car loan). You have to quote your flight number and frequent flier number to get a seat number, when you call the telecheck number. And then they ask you to wait because you're waiting number is seven in a certain queue. Add to all that, you actually have to rememberu00a0u00a0 your wedding anniversary date,u00a0 your wife's birthday, and when your mother's medical check-up is due. And But, oh my god, wait a minute, is that the time? I just remembered I had to be somewhere by nine. And you know the number of cars on the roads these days. "Waiter! Oof! Is that total number on the bill for real? What is the count of beers I've had?" I just don't remember!

The numbers game

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The numbers game

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