Lockdown was implemented in the whole country to contain the spread of Covid 19. Our state or union territory is no different. But being the financial warrior, we had to be at the front fighting the deadly pandemic while serving our customer. We have also faced the brutality of this deadly pandemic with so many bankers losing life. Though every banker is cautiously treading through these difficult times, there were near miss incidents which every banker could have faced. Let me narrate an incident that happening during the lockdown which involved our own staff. It was Monday evening when I had just stepped into my room after day’s labour. I had just taken my evening bath when my phone started ringing. I was surprised to see a call from one of my lady colleagues because usually after the office time no calls take place. Within few minutes, another call came in and this time it was from my service manager. “Sir, Where are you?” He was quite subtle in his demeanour. With utter calmness,...
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The striking meadows of the valley So calm and filled with serenity Inviting me to be a part Although distant and apart Where trees are filled with luscious cherry And butterfly making merry The apple orchards dazzling around Like the garden roses being surround The aroma of the nature Letting you to forget the future Sipping the glass of wine On the banks of river Nile Bordered by the lanky conical eucalyptus And the bustling pasture on us The herds of cattle Mumbling and murmuring in the space With no pressure in my mind Sometimes sad but always kind Always dreamt of this life With no desire of any sort Truth being Completely different Life being tough and irrelevant But have this in my mind One day I shall be like this kind
The Government announced that the lockdown restrictions shall be eased out today onwards in view of district being categorised in Orange Risk Level. Never in my life would consider or anyone’s thoughts have come about this categorisations. Well the risk is real and so the restrictions ought to be implemented in such a manner. Speaking to my friends around me, I think the restrictions should be much tighter than we perceive. The onus of the same should be on us and not on the government. Why should we have a government telling all the time what to do and what not? We, being the citizens, should own the responsibility ourselves. But alas we are Indians, and we, Indians, only have a lethargic attitude that too full of carelessness. During the lockdown 2.0, one of our customers visited us- a pensioner, who retired from armed forces, having kids who are also working in the services. This customer visits us for pension collection ,and as a matter of fact we have been servicing him very wel...
I was sitting in my chamber and few customers came to me for help. The times were testing as we were facing the wrath of mother nature. It was serious business in front of me but the mind was not allowing me to work religiously. Somehow i serviced the customers in anger and let myself pacify. How has this anger , anxiety and rage crept in me. I was cool as cucumber but it seems lockdown blues have started showing its signs. It is indeed the best time to go back to my writing skills. As we enter into the Lockdown 4.0, it is the time for penning down my thoughts and experiences about the lockdown hereon daily basis. I may be a bit late but as we say a stitch in time saves nine, i begin by my experiences and challenges I met with so far. The March end brought with it the first instalment of lockdown and for me initially I was unable to understand the seriousness of the issue. As we passed through the first phase I was exuberant about the fact that the corona virus in India ...
The time of Corona has brought in it the lockdown. Lockdown is the state of affairs when the whole world comes to stand still. Any change would carry with it the innate quality of inviting criticism both for and against it . Lockdown is no different. There may be people who are favouring lockdown while as there is a subset of our population which are against it too. My analysis is it happened for our good and we all need to bear this adventure. The best part of lockdown for me has been that the public broadcasting of the two mythological epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. Both these epics represent the ethos of Indian civilisation and how the Indian civilisation has evolved over the time. While the positives of the epics circulate through the veins and arteries of the nation, one aspect has been showing the ladies as sheer objectification. The epics have given a great moral to us which invokes us to respect the women folk. These epics are really significant in the current d...
Finally we come to the conclusion of our Leh so-journ. Hope you will enjoy reading it. Leh has its own strengths and so has its weaknesses. It has always enticed people but owing to its geography and sparse population, the stay can be a challenge. One important tenet for enjoying tenure has to be the company in which you dwell. Thankfully and barring initial few months, the time spent in Leh has been well spent. The whole credit shall go to the amazing company we had together. Be it Saspol or Leh, the people around me were very encouraging and supportive. And during the later part of tenure, the arrival of Chief Manager Ramanjeet was just icing on the cake. Raman Sir and I shared a great camaraderie. Infact, in the first meeting, we got together very well. Even our way of analysing the things was exactly similar. Although I was 60 kms from Leh main branch, yet we had developed instant friendship which continues till today and hopefully, flourishes in future. On holidays we w...
Leh gives an opportunity to fine-tune your gears. No big thing, it is the choicest destination of so many bikers across the globe. Foreigners have preferred it as the best place for trekking. Being in Leh, missing trekking means you have missed the real flavour of Ladakh. In my subconscious mind, I had always this lust creeping in for experiencing the nuance of trekking. As I said earlier, if a person actually wants something to happen even the Mother Nature sets in place the route for the same ” Chahat aisi ki ho is dil ne, ki muqaddar bhi sir juka ke khada ho jaye ”. In this part of Leh journey i take you to the trekking track of TAR. I was sitting in my cabin when I received a customer who was working with a local newspaper agency. He came with request for agricultural advance. As a prerogative to any finance, bankers have to do a necessary background check. One year in Leh and I was used to the names, locations and bit of geography s well. But when the customer uttered the nam...
A banker hardly gets time to socialise owing to the enormous stress and pressure. This community is slowly and steadily turning into a forlorn lark. Being a part of this community, i also hardly get any time to attend any social gathering. Even keeping abreast with the latest happenings is also sometimes impossible. These days, due to internet blockade in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, we are unable to remain facebook and whatsapp active. The dependency on the idiot box gets increased. The KBC has been our favourite TV show over the last decade or so. We have actually grown with it. The show gives a boost for any avid current affairs reader. But I lost track of it over the last few years. Incidentally I happened to watch the Big B anchored KBC on danteras by chance aired on 25 th October. Being a Friday, the show showcases some people who have contributed significantly to our society. This episode highlighted the contribution of a doctor couple based out of Bharatpur Ra...
I left my previous post at the Lasermo challenge. The Lasermo challenge is a wretched tale of deceit, manipulation and trickery. Let us keep this portion for the end and first discuss the magnificence of Leh making our reading journey interesting and riveting. Leh is one of the most sought travel destination and in the recent times has been a traveller’s paradise. The meadows of Saspol, the desert road of Likir, The moon land of Lamayuru and the highly revered Pathar sahib Gurudwara- all add to the exquisite blend of natural beauty, aroma and the mystique power of meditation. I am specifically discussing the areas on Leh- Kargil road. This is where I spent the best part of my Leh journey-Saspol. One of the fallout of the Lasermo challenge was that I was posted as Branch Manager Saspol. Saspol is a small hamlet next to the highly sensitive area of Nimmo. The climate of Saspol is very similar to that of Srinagar with lot of vegetation. This small town is situated on t...
The Leh journey had started and I was just experiencing the ups and downs of the cold desert. The initial days were really captivating. On one hand I was facing the wrath of changed climate while as on the other hand the Leh beauty was just full of sensuality, attracting me towards it and asking me to flow through its lap. The climate was actually gaining an upper hand here. The harsh climate was taking toll on my health. I was experiencing constant cough and no drug could cure it. The cough had become so chronic that i had been carrying the medicine continuously with me from office to the residence and back. It was an impact of high altitude sickness which is usually associated with low pressure areas. Doctors advised me the ethylated spirits but being a teetotaller it never interested me. Nevertheless this continued for next six months and there was no letup to the prevailing cough. At the same time, i was continuously putting in my efforts as the Loan Manager. The profile of Loan...
A writer always tends to find out some inspiration for penning down his thoughts. The inspiration draws the thoughts of the author from his mind on to the paper. Leh is one of the places, a person always wants to visit before his death. I had the opportunity to be there and enjoy the extremities of the climate. State Bank of India presents you with an opportunity to roam across different languages, cultures and atmospheres and my Leh sojourn was just a part of this experience only. My Leh journey started with my reluctance to go there. The reluctance came from only one reason- the biased approach of the Bank otherwise I was quite excited for my challenges. As soon as I landed on Leh Airport, the beauty of the desert just struck me. In the month of August, the chocolaty hills with sand were just like a virgin teen covered with the silken thread. My affair with Leh had started. One of my co passengers was another SBI Chief Manager who just guided me to my destination in Leh market-...
Friends starting off with a three part series of Turnaround Stories from Corporate World. These stories were part of eMagazine published by our bank/ circle. Greatest Corporate Turnaround Stories (Part 1- The turnaround at IBM) It is the law of nature that whatever goes up has to come down one day. Every business has to go through the different phases of a business cycle. The way the business composes itself through the difficult times makes its growth story. In this series we will look at the stories of some of the greatest corporate turnaround stories, the stories of grit and determination, the stories of change, the stories of trust and belief, the stories that will enable us to come out successful in the time of need. Corporate turnarounds are almost never engineered by a single person. A CEO who takes a failing company and makes it successful again obviously has help from management, a board, along with customers and shareholders. The vision for how a company can change ...
Another week passed by and it is getting complicated. Don’t know who is right and who is wrong. Let me voice out only my feeling and not the incidents this time. Bank Head’s job is a strenuous job and no matter how much one tries to balance the things, there is always unevenness, a difference creeps in and probably this is where the principles of management do fill in. Over the past six months I have tried to balance this phenomenon with myself taking the biggest misses in all the incidents. I have not been able to claim my regular perks (financial jolt), not been able to take care of my family and friends ( emotional n social jolt), not been able to fill in my annual appraisal leading to my controller giving their own report ( opportunity jolt) etc. In all the circumstances I have been at the bearing end because of my involvement in other issues, other incidents and others problems. Bank has always been my priority and will remain. After banking it is my people (who are dependent...
The week is finally over and I really mean it is over. Probably one of the pathetic weeks I have gone through. The experience has been quite daunting. Both my personal as well as professional life got affected. Incident 1: On Wednesday evening I received a call from one of my ex colleagues Mr Raina for help. He has been following with me for some tax related queries. I had asked him to come down to me in the evening. Somehow I got late and reached home at 9 PM. He called me and said that he is unable to come inside my by-lane because of stray dogs at the square. I came out to see that he is being hounded by the dogs. Probably being a stranger to our colony the dogs were harassing him. As soon as I went out the dogs ran away. While I was chatting with Mr Raina, the creatures starting to trouble someone yet again. Since it was dark out I could not relate whether they were troubling any humans or else. I took an aim to them and pelted a stone towards them. At once there was lull but ...
The bank officer’s job is quite tiresome and in case you are a bank head it multiplies your difficulties. The last week has been a normal one in fact bit satisfied about it. I was able to close two important jobs. A deceased case had been lingering for quite a long time. My lack of knowledge and inability to handle any deceased case were the main hindrances. Finally I managed to overcome both of them and settled the case. Second one was an enhancement of agricultural loan. Although I had sanctioned the same last week but in system it had been pending. One indeed gets satisfied when you see smile on the face of any person .Quite contented with the closure of these two cases. Referring to my previous weeks post, the business deal was closed in negative. My inner conscience didn’t allow me to go ahead and hence disapproved the case myself. My superiors also didn’t show such a keen interest in the scheme of things and I also didn’t find it really worthy. Hence dropped the idea myself. ...
Writing has always been my favourite past time. But over the last few years my flair for writing has been hindered by lot of interferences. These interferences widely ranging from personal to professional schemes have highly violated my habit of writing. Banking has been a different game from the day I have taken over as Branch Head Arnia. My experiences with general banking started in Dec 2014 and still I am trying to figure out the best ways and means of managing it the finest way. As has been the cases with previous weeks I have been battling with new challenges every day. One new challenge that added to my experience and deserves the mention here is the offer from a state government department for deposit of their funds in our branch. The whole background is depicted as under. On Thursday while I was negotiating some of the usual bank chore I received a call from one of my friends posted in the state department. As he went ahead with his offer he intimated me that his officer...
During my sojourn through State Bank, I received numerous appreciations and accolades. One of the noted one was the Essay Competition in March last year wherein my entry was declared the third best in entire India. I reproduce the same here. The topic was related to making State Bank the numero uno bank in the world. Please read and do provide your valuable feedback. “Business success is less a function of grandiose predictions than it is a result of being able to respond rapidly to real changes as they occur.” Jack Welch, former CEO at GE & famous management guru. State Bank of India has been the pioneer in Indian Banking Industry-pioneer in banking practices, pioneer in products & services and pioneer in the management & implementation. Yet the bank is not where it should have been. Careful analysis of the top 20 banks globally indicates failure to put State Bank at the top. Even current Finance Minister strategizes to put Indian Banking at the world stage...