Technology pangs
N J Ravi Chander
During the pre-digital age, bankers were glad to work with minimal tools – our grey matter and hands. We seldom got our sums wrong as we went about our business of manually jotting and totalling lengthy scrolls, daybooks, ledgers and registers.
Clerks vied to outshine each other, and a triumphant shout would go up from the victors on reaching the finish line. Calculators and adding machines were a rarity; today, they record even attendance through a digital thumbprint.
Back in the 80s, the St. Mark’s Road branch in Bengaluru was a jumbo-sized unit boasting of a complement of around 200 employees. The cash department had a staff strength of 40 – a luxury by today’s standards. The branch had a currency chest and sent remittances to other smaller branches.
The authorities restricted access to the cash department for security reasons, and the branch performed Laxmi pooja every Friday – employees would queue up before the cash department to venerate the goddess and partake of the prasad. A long giant-sized rectangular table dominated the ‘counting rituals’ and served as our work station. This doubled up as a dining table during the lunch break.
The greenhorns learned the art of counting money at the table before graduating to the cash counters. The veterans enlightened us on the security features of banknotes and taught how to distinguish between a genuine and a fake note. “Working in the cash department is like playing with fire. Be careful!” the head cashier would rebuke us when we erred.
We honed our skills at counting currency notes by flicking the edges of a 200-page notebook with our index finger and thumb. The head cashier would admonish us if we got it wrong. We would fine-tune the art by practising religiously at home. Many of the seniors who had put in donkey years amazed us with their speed and skill, and we used to watch spellbound as they finished their act in an instant. Some cashiers went one step ahead and flicked two pieces simultaneously and finish the job in double-quick time. Thanks to technology, the art of manual counting have been lost.
The Special Bearer Bond Scheme introduced by the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government in the 1980s had people with illegitimate money flocking to the branch. The scheme was an opportunity to legitimise dirty money. It was during this period I had the first glimpse of a counterfeit note. We cremated the confiscated notes at once to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.
The branch would open extra payment counters on month-ends to disburse the salaries of Defence establishments, government offices and public sector units. The establishments presented cheques for large amounts, and this required the cashier to exercise more than ordinary care while making payments. Fear of ending up with cash shortages after making payments would send a shiver down the spine of many senior cashiers and make them go on leave en masse, forcing the juniors to do the honours.
Hilariously, I had my first experience of speaking on the landline phone only after joining the bank. Those days the main branch reported the consolidated cash figures of all the branches in Bengaluru over the telephone to the Reserve Bank of India. The unit would despatch the hard copies to the RBI through a special messenger on the same day. A change in ‘office order’ just a few months into my new job, forced me to take charge of the desk. Enveloped by telephone phobia, I haltingly called out the figures!
Technology has, without doubt, quickened the pace of work, but it has also made a lot of lives miserable. Clients demand ‘express service’ and mails, faxes and text messages require responses ASAP. Old warhorses like me, miss the old days when life moved on the slow lane and a bank job was less demanding.
(The author is a former banker who has taken up writing as a pastime. He writes for the Deccan Herald, The New Indian Express, The Tribune, The Hitavada, The City Tab, Bangalore Mirror The Hans India and Kashmir Vision)
KV Network
