My Country of Birth

I used to be proud of my extensive geographic knowledge, until today morning. When I was truly humbled and in style.

I am from I, presently in S, and wanted to visit U. So I needed a visa for entering U, and I was instructed to fill in the electronic application form. And here came the bomb shell, the form asked my city and counrty of birth. I typed in my city of birth as N, and proceeded to select my country of birth from a drop down box. And I swear, I never had come across names of such countries.

They sounded like pharmaceuticals, magical mantras, tongue-twisters and anything but a country to be born in.

"Aguascalienties". What? My tongue got stuck in my throat when I tried to prnounce it. I was wondering if there might be any drug whose shot would free my tongue, when I saw countries with names called "Oaxaca" and "Tlaxcala" and was convinced that God has its own ways of blessing you. (I took a shot of both drugs and finally my tongue was free again). ;-)

"Suriname" and "Reunion". Yeah! my geography is poor indeed. Anyway, these two countries reminded me of my ancestors, as by some strange coincidence, my present Surname is a Reunion of two family surnames.


"Zacatecus", and "Yucatan". Are we talking about countries of this Earth?
"Tabasco"! This rather seems to be a variant of tobaco.


"In the air" Well, this was a better option, some people do get born in air sometimes.

"At sea" Oops!...Maybe all the nations should convene a submit and divide the space and the Sea among themselves, so that at least the poor fellows born there can get a country of birth to fill in their forms.

Well it was really an education for me, filling out my form. I intend to find these places on the map. (and if I can't find them, I am going on a voyage to look out for them.)