The tale of Current Bank Account

As she stepped inside the steel door etched with glass, she found herself confused and nervous. It was nothing unusual. This place always did this magic trick of shooing away all her confidence. She felt uneducated and under confident. Knowing all this, she kept walking inside. She could feel the stares and cold air in the place. Nothing was new. She had been to this place a number of times and it was always the same.

She could see the confused faces with their eyes wandering here and there yelling for some help. She could see footsteps running here and there in hurry. Why is everyone so busy these days? She could see people on other side of the desks, always looking frustrated. Why did they always behave like they were working for free?

Though she was known to the atmosphere of this place, she never figured out which counter was meant for which work. She could never find out the reception. So, she did what everyone does. She walked to the nearest counter and asked, “Sir, I need to open a current bank account. Would you please tell me the procedure?”

Before she got herself ready to listen to the answer, she heard two voices almost shouting at her, “What do you need a current bank account for?” She felt as if she had asked for a formula to develop a nuclear bomb. But she had prepared for this. She said, I am self employed and I need a current account. She knew this wasn’t a sufficient answer from the look she got from the two angry faces. She felt sorry to have disturbed them but the harm was already done. Now, she needed to answer. And she explained how she works from home and earns money and to make it count as her work experience, she needs a current account.

Yes, that wasn’t really a good explanation but that’s all she knew. She didn’t have much idea about it either. Only thing she knew was she needed that account as early as possible. But those two bank employees were too furious over this. “Mam, you cannot get a current account unless you get a company registered in your name. Go to the Municipal Committee Department and get a firm/company registered first.” Their voice made it pretty clear that they didn’t want her in the bank premises.

After a few moments of trying to convince them that it was possible to get an individual current account, she gave up. She thought those bank employees would obviously have more knowledge about bank procedures than her. After all, she never studied accounts in her engineering degree or even during school time. She decided to take a long breath and call someone up to take some more advice about that. But mobile phones don’t really help when you’re in need. Do they?

After a couple of failed calls, she gathered up her courage and went back and said, you just give me the form for opening a current account. If those bank employees would have had guns then, they would have probably shot her. That’s what she felt like when she looked into their eyes. She always thought bank people have targets to match and they need to open new accounts. So, they should rather assist her in the procedure. But here, they were just asking her to get lost.

When she found it difficult to fight back, her eyes wandered towards the cabin of the bank manager. Her inner voice yelled that she needed to talk to the manager. And what came out was, “Can you let me talk to some other bank official, please?” That team of swat cats got the vibe and they said you can talk to the lady at the back. Then she went to that lady and asked her that she wanted to open a current account. The lady quickly said it was possible and gave her the form and told her the procedure. The task was done.

If she had not thought of consulting some other person or let’s say, if she had believed those two bank employees, she would have never got the work done. We usually go to such places considering that at least bank employees would know the procedures of their bank but that is seldom true in the country like India. These people are given minute tasks to do in banks and they are so ignorant that they don’t even try to know more just for the sake of general knowledge. But when someone asks them for assistance, they turn into the next genius born in the world. They behave like they know everything and can never be wrong.

And I am always left wondering, what’s the problem in accepting that there are some things you don’t know about? If you never bothered your potato shaped brain filled with grass to work and look for more information regarding the work you do, why can’t you just accept that? What’s the problem in accepting the defeat if you prepared for nothing but getting defeated?