April 2 was a normal day for me and my team in the branch.As usual BM and other senior staff had already arrived at 9:30 AM and I was on my way to the branch thinking of my future and the road that lies ahead .It was 10 by the time the SBI logo in blue background was visible to me and I got off the auto.
Like every day, there was a huge rush of people mostly rural folks from the nearby dozen villages which come under our branch service area.But the striking feature of the crowd was that most of them were in their late 60's and 70's , their facial topography being a live case study of the years gone by .
To die is not an easy an instantaneous process like switching on or off.People wither away gradually , the once jovial , ready to take on the world attitude of the youth gives in to the irritative , sad , desolate mindset that most of the aged folks have . And there is a very good reason for such a development.
Most of these senior citizens as we say in banking terminologies stay lonely or in a corner of their house without much interaction with the family.They do find solace in interacting with each other and talking about the yester years with glee and passion.
Pension in such circumstances is like nectar to them . It's a sort of guarantee for them that for the next month they will not be forced to live at the whims and fancies of their off springs. The queue was quite big , so all the three cashiers were working full throttle.
Though the whole body refuses to co-operate and gives away slowly as we reach our end, the eyes are always with you. The body may creak , limbs come to jam , breath get choked but the expression in the eyes say it all.
And the eyes of these old folks resembled a happy man who was able to win a sort of mission by being able to get his money after waiting in the queue for quite a lot time .I cannot forget the expression of an old lady who's a regular customer of our branch and directly barges into BM's chamber , hugging him like her own child and commanding him to do her stuff.Quite an experience.
Mean while a good news for me.. My PF Id got activated !!!
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