The loss of a dear one encompasses a host of overwhelming emotions to combat with, as also a few unsavory tasks to be dealt with. Battling with emotions on the one hand, and dealing with pragmatic practicals on the other can be unnerving to the endurers. A friend narrated her harrowing experience at a bank based in Bangalore, where she had visited to settle claims of her dear one’s locker. As any person can vouch, settlement of claims of a dear younger relative is a terrible emotional experience. On the initial visit the manager had approved the nomination claim and asked her to visit any day to settle the claim.
But my friend anyway took an appointment and visited, only to be in for a rude shock. The poker faced manager said that there was no proof of the nomination as the opening form was lost and they were searching for the same! How then had he earlier approved the claim! My friend was aghast as she was an ex officer of the same bank and had seen the opening form herself on her visit a year ago. Her son recollected that they had taken a picture of the form and she was relieved when he retrieved it wherein the nomination was clearly mentioned. But the manager would not budge, suspicion written all over his face.
They were made to wait for two hours despite pressing work demands on them, whilst the manager and his assistant kept frantically searching for the opening form in the pile of files scattered around. Finally, the manager approached her son, completely ignoring her, and took him inside. Her husband reminded her of her ex-staff status and she hurried behind to see her son, a scientist at a reputed organisation, once again handing over all his ID cards to the insensitive manager, who was seen consumed by needless suspicion and probable fear of abetting a possible fraud. My friend assumed that he had finally relented using his discretionary powers, but was taken aback to see the opening form in his hand that he had located, but chosen not to mention. Some more distressing moments passed by for my friend and family but then it is a long story. She concluded that she had never come across such inefficiency and ignorance – at some point the officials did not even know the exact claim form to be collected. She expressed dejectedly that the fact that she was an ex-officer of the same organisation proved useless, and her family was treated with insensitivity at the hands of inefficient and ignorant officials.
A visit to the bank used to be a friendly experience in the past. There were plenty of people at the branch with each one of them having time to spare for the customer. For the ex-staff it was akin to visiting their second home. It is essential to recall Gandhiji’s words, “A customer is the most important visitor on the premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business, he is a part of it…” All this seems a distant past, with target chasing, insensitivity and inefficiency ruling nowadays.
