TRAVAILS OF TRANSACTION

I have been the errand boy for money since many years and going back and forth between the banks for various reasons has been my enterprise. I have seen banks transition from manual to digital, from hand-counted to machine counted, stapled bundles to wrapped bundles of currency notes and handwritten to electronically balanced passbooks. Whatever, I may have left in this transition history is due to Google not being able to access the site as my home internet has a narrow bandwidth verging into being more obsolete than the dial up connection of BSNL.

Recently, I drew a wad of notes to deposit in my loan account and as luck would have it the server never obliged. I walked out, back to my home in 41  degrees Celsius, shielded with a face mask and an over sized white apron maintaining my Coronavirus protection and me ready to dehydrate, pining for water.

Yet, the next day I walked again to my holy grail at half past seven in the morning to finish my half-baked project. This time the cash deposit machine was out of order and the guard complained about the public for putting in more money than the machine could take. I duly abandoned the mission. Driven by the date of the deadline, today was the last day to deposit cash in my account as the weekend would ensue the next day. I rushed again just before noon trying to capitalize on the heat and wishing there would be less number of customers.

I pushed the button for a token and my token receipt exhibited 244 while the screen on the cash counter still stood strong at 220,going by the cashier the server would resume  a little after fifteen to twenty minutes. My slow mental calculation cautioned me to be prepared for my turn at around half past one. My to and fro shuttle services commenced again and when I finally reached back to the bank by quarter past one the screen displayed 240.Just in time I thought.

The familiar guard now asked me to use the CDM and I happily stashed the cash. My happiness was short-lived when I checked my account the next day. I had paid generous charges to use CDM. I questioned my logic for being enamored in these times when it is so tough to earn a paltry amount for so many I stood here uselessly paying what I could have given to someone for help.

Digital or manual, I wondered which one I would vote for. Did I correctly hear someone whisper NOTA? . No, I think I would just let it pass.