Tuesday, September 26, 2006

we BANK upon YOU !

I am very sure a lot of you , infact all of you, must have undergone the kind of trauma and torture which i am about to narrate right now. The kind of story that you must have heard one too many so that it sounds obsolete and all. Yet all this simply cannot dissuade me from pouring out my feelings on my blog. Afterall, its my blog :p

So the scene is IIT Powai SBI branch. One of my lectures got over early and there were around 20 minutes to go before the next one started. With too many people bullying and coaxing me as a daily ritual to return the money i owed to them, i decided to pay a visit to the bank. "Just get over with this life of penury and insult" being the driving force behind my taking this arduous journey on my ageing, creaking and squeaking bike (synonym for a bicycle) now on the verge of calling it quits. The guard at the entrance didn't even bother giving me a sidelong glance as he was quite busy ogling at the others "more interesting". Saying what i saw inside was discouraging, would be a moderation. It seems this is one elusive Mumbai bank where half the populace banks. There was utter chaos with the sea of humanity inside really unnerving. Perfect scene of unity amidst diversity. People owing allegiance to all religions, dialects, shapes, sizes, geometries, generations, genders were there. Nobody seemed interested in anybody. There were mothers with children and children with mothers. I also joined one of the serpentine queues that was on the verge of spilling out of the entrance. The guy infront of me was making really amazing faces at God-knows-who. Work was going on at a tardy pace. In the defence of SBI, it should be mentioned that this branch is entirely (wo)manned by an all ladies brigade - almost that is ! So the slow(another moderation) banking is understandable with the argumentative indian woman at her best. So there were the prolonged tea breaks where the ladies, still at their counters, chatted about how their kids were faring/screwing up. Why were they planning a move to uptown Colaba and why the banks should try cutting down the number of working hours. Munnabhai, Bala Thackeray's disappearance from the news and believe it or not, Pope Benedict - they all formed part of the not-so-mundane conversations that kept hitting your ears hard - really HARD ! I swear i haven't made up any of these divine conversations. Ofcourse, in between there were some traces of ill humored banking as well. It was almost an hour before i finally managed to reach within a stone's throw of the lady at the counter. Alas ! i didn't have a stone. At this moment Lady Luck (or what i thought she was) smiled upon me. The entire queue in front of me, for reasons inexplicable, performed a vanishing act. I was going to experience the once in a lifetime moment of being-there-done-that. Rejuvenated and seeing all my dreams materialising, I galloped and reached for the counter. The lady was busy knitting a sweater - a sweater for Mumbai's sweaty weather. One look from her made me jittery and nervous. "God!! what have i done ??" I wasn't expecting a scorching or lascivious look from her. But then neither was i prepared for the disgustingly disdainful glance i got from her. Too embarrased, i ventured to ask the peon (of the male variety) and was rudley told " Connection failure! Bhagwaan jaane kab wapis ayega! Kal aao".
Been there and not done that. A class missed and an explanation that would not go down well with the money lenders. I am back to my room hoping against hope that tomorrow is better.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good story....
but u have to pay my 300 Rs...

Anonymous said...

Ah! Too painful man. If it makes you feel any better, my memory is also scarred with equally traumatic experiences... the banking system in India needs a serious overhaul! Now as always, very well written. But the 'women manned' thingie gave you this 'sexist' aura! Careful! And know what? Others have been blogging about our mis-managed SBI as well... here's one link:

http://aditivarma.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_aditivarma_archive.html

So cheer up! You're not alone!

@skumar: Stop bugging our poor chap here! Didnt you just read his tragic story??

Anonymous said...

Oh, nearly forgot, I know that change always spruces things up and all ... but I think the previous template was much better.

arunabh said...

@skumar
oye this wasn't a story !! its a real life painful saga :( wasei will give u ur money asap :p

@yashika
yeah i was more than certain that people have been thru similar phases in life ... rather its the type of phase that occurs with such regularity in life :( "sexist" aura! i was just penning/blogging down some rlly innocent thoughts :( still thanx . u can never trust the blogosphere .
change of template was brought about due to some people finding the previous one tad too difficult to read. Still am on the lookout for a more sexy n sleek template

Dee Spake Trash Anyway... said...

omigod so u been tormented by SBI too???? They are all round the place(esp in educational institutions) and boy do they do a bad job of it!!! waise, like a few other ppl pointed out that women thingy sounds sexist, but tell u wat, the branch v have is completely "manned" and believe me when i say that they gossip endlessly too, while they make us wait and chastise us for one thing or another when v finally manage to interrupt their imp convos with meek requests... so maybe its just a sbi syndrome...but no getting away from them, is there? sigh.

Anonymous said...

abbe its still better than Canara .... it took me more than 1 month to get an outstation cheque cleared ..... whenever i enquired i got "kaam bahut ho gaya hai naye bachhe fees bhar rahe hain time lagega ... ek hafte ke baad aao" ... and a week later "paise transfer nahi hua hain par agar urgent hai to bank mahager help kar denge" as if they would do me a favour!!

Hey which category would you classify this woman into ;)

Giddu said...

Instead of getting some money from the bank, you got your change here at the blog :P

And did anyone tell you about the new thing that they've put up now??

It is called an ATM.

arunabh said...

@deepti
Again just an innocent tale that got sexist touch very unknowingly :(
i shud have said the argumentative indian rather than singling out the indian ladies. Will excercise extreme caution in future
@sai
yeah you dont need telling me how bugging can canara get :( i was there with you tht day and still remember how much you made me wait as u kept repeating " bas 5 minutes"
@giddu
i was just waiting for this query. Wonder how many comments n people it took before some1 queried. My ATM has been rendered worthless by the awesome Mumbai rains. Applying for a new one means coughing up a couple of hundred bucks and thats the kind of luxury i cannot afford right now :(

Anonymous said...

The people at these banks should be hanged for troubling innocent boys like you. Specially the women can sometimes really get on the nerves :p I just pray that you do manage to get the money today so that you are no longer carrying any debt which might lead to your getting harassed again :)And you should always carry enough spare money on you because you never know when you might need some - plssssssss don't mind if this sounds like n advice :((

~ruchika

Anonymous said...

And i am increasing your comment counter ;) means let me be the one to take you onto double digits :d

~ruchika

Anonymous said...

Fantastic man ! Not very sure if all of this is real or some fits of fantasy has been involved. But this made so much fun and you actually managed to make your avid readers feel sorry for you ;) Thats called being good dude !

~vardaan speakth

SaiK said...

my blogger id is wrong !!!

http://random-blabbers.blogspot.com/
and
http://pashunz.blogspot.com/ ... is the fotoblog !!!

Simple Menu said...

Hey! After a long time of wanting to see your blog, finally did. Needless to say, very impressive. Oh yes.. that was an original verse..

Anonymous said...

Good lord !! Now even the indian banks get on your nerves ! There is some serious problem with you - you keep getting irritated with small things .. try meditation and yoga :)

arunabh said...

@ruchika
Thanx for all the valueable advice dispensed x-(
@vardaan
Almost everything was realistic. Did spice up things a bit but then as you say got my readers sorry for me ;)
@sai
Corrected my lord !!
@ramya
That was really gud a verse!
Keep visting
@siddm
You know already did a one year course on yoga and meditaion in my first year at iit. Guess didn't really work out :d

Anonymous said...

This was fun, real fun reading.
Keep blogging !

Anonymous said...

So much like a story. Was this for real:p And no it happens in every bank and every where regardless of the gender. So no need to blame the ladies brigade x-(

arunabh said...

@sairah
thanx
keep visiting .
@prachi
thanx and apologies ;)

sushobhan said...

ya i had the similar experience in the railway reservation counter.........anywy great reading............ man u simply rock........

arunabh said...

thanx man and the feeling as always is mutual :)