I Love Pancakes

Oh how I love cakes...black forest, cheese and then ice cream cakes in summers.and finally I love PANCAKES, a girl in her early 20s talking to her friend in a cafe made me wonder if pancake is cake, as in cake, or it's something else. I thought I shouldn't judge this smart, beautiful woman for such a negligible error.
This incident happened almost a month back. Since then I have tried a few 'happening' places in Kathmandu where youngsters 20-25 years old usually hang out. Recently I read an article which said that if you want to change a country, the upcoming generation (20-25 years) should be taken into consideration because they are the pillars of tomorrow. Highly inspired by his suggestion, I made a small personal observation.
I used to sit in these places alone or with a friend drinking coffee or beer. I noticed that majority of the people come in couples (not necessarily male and female) or groups of four and five. As my focus was on singletons or groups, I ignored the couples. Both genders usually have their own distinct topics to discuss unless they are in a mixed group. For instance, the common topic of conversation among girls is how she bunked classes, how a fellow counterpart is bullied for her sense of dressing, how she gave excuses for her poor results and, of course, her rival's boyfriend. On the contrary, guys talk about going out, drinking, dope, computer games, movies and music. It was disappointing to see that none of the groups talked about learning, exchanging information, career, professional plans, etc. etc. The only consolation I could gather was their talks about studying abroad, especially United States of the America.
At one point I became nostalgic. I recalled what we used to talk about when we were the same age, in the same hangouts. I agree we talked about the same stuff and did the same things, but like the 21st century technology, these informal conversations are also growing more complex and sophisticated with time. Youngsters now understand that living life like 10 years back won't take them anywhere. Life is not like it used to be where you sit with your friends all day long without really losing anything. In fact, you could do it for a month and still you didn't lose anything. Now if you laze around for a week, you have to do a lot of catching up. You have to run with the technology. Not far from here I look at the Indian crowd and draw comparisons (not a good thing to do but can't help it): the Indians are so focused and competitive. They know that if they don't act now, they will be left behind in the race.
This is a wholly personal observation so I am sure people may have their own perspectives on this matter. Before I conclude, however, there is one more thing I'd like to mention. We all have our own tastes of music so I request young zealots not to play their music too loud in public places. Please show some etiquette. There is a thing called headphones, an awesome Western invention.
And pancake is not a pastry just because it has 'cake' in its name.

(Published in The Kathmandu Post on 21st March 2009)