Thus started my banking career!

satchitananda · Jan 2, 2016

As usual, I missed reading this interesting snippet out of your past. My experience of the bank has always been from the other side, although I did make an attempt once to cross over to the inside - without mask, gun etc. of course. I mean, I tried to take the entrance and when I say I 'tried' I mean I just tried my luck. I had not a clue what the exams would be like and after the first failure, I did not bother again, assuming that God in His infinite wisdom was sending me a message! It was years later that I visited my class mate from school at the SBI. She was a PO in the FE division. I had gone to haul her out of her seat at the end of the day to go across the road to eat some samosa and misal at my favourite road side stall. What I saw her do made me tremble like an aspen and thank my good fortune at not having made it through the exam. She checked all the cheques and the entries from top to bottom and then from bottom to top. My head was swimming just watching her and I can assure you that samosa and misal was badly required to restore me to a semblance of normalcy. Ever since then I try to be rather respectful and patient with bank staff.

Cheeniya · Jan 9, 2016

My dear Satchi
Sorry I have taken a week to respond to your FB.
I was at the outset intrigued by your saying "As usual I missed reading this interesting snippet". When people 'usually' miss something, it implies that they usually give it a miss! It is like someone giving Arnab Goswami a miss!

What you say is absolutely true. It is the Karma of the worst kind that lands you in a Bank. The Bank staff are an obsessive lot because they deal with numbers all the time. In my initial Banking days, my schedule invariably involved balancing of books which was done manually those days. I would end up adding all the addable numbers from top to bottom and bottom to top. All this adding made me so addictive to numbers that I ended up even adding the numbers in a calendar. It was only when I finished my training scheduled, I could have a look at other aspects of Banking. Once I ended up as a Personnel Manager which saw me handling the human affairs in the Bank. The Trade unionists were an amazing lot who could make the top management believe that its job was not to do business but to take care of the staff essentially.

I left my Bank job twelve years ahead of my scheduled retirement when I had two daughters to be married. Do I need to say anything more on my love for the Bank job?
Sri

satchitananda · Jan 9, 2016

LOL, Cheeniya sir, I can imagine the general outrage all round!

Agatha83 · Jan 9, 2016

Dear Cheeniya,

I also belong to satchi group, many times missing important threads, unabashedly looking out only for my own threads, number of views, comments etc. Since the title of your thread itself comes comes with its own warning of being senile I quietly ignored it since most of the time in my life I was left to struggle with senile people! One thing I always used to feel jealous about people working in banks, is that they have the crispest currency notes in their possession unlike common folks like us who have to deal with soiled notes.Another thing I hated while withdrawing cash was the way cashier handled currency notes using his saliva, the most disgusting thing on earth. Like PGW's Jeeves and his tongue in cheek humor ,I liked your ramblings sprinkled with humor!Thank you satchi!

Agatha83

Cheeniya · Jan 9, 2016

Dear Agatha
Ever since you entered IL, I somehow imagined that you must be a Wodehouse aficionado like me. It must be the name that you have chosen but then after reading couple of your snippets and savouring your brand of humour, I told myself that Dahlia would have been a more appropriate nickname for you. Of Bertie's two aunts, Agatha is a cynic but Dahlia is full of life!

Of senility, I am proud to be senile and I am in the prime of it presently! I love rambling and I make sure before posting my ramblings that they do not make any sense.

It is true that the Bank guys are invariably in possession of crisp new notes but new notes disappear faster than the soiled ones because no one likes to accept such notes from us. The note counting machines have replaced the obnoxious practice of using saliva to count the notes. In my days, these machines were not in use and sponge cups were provided to the cashiers. When the sponge became dry, the cashiers switched over to their tongues! Some of the older cashiers used to have their tongues hanging out like a German Shepard!
Sri