Goddess of Domestic things

"Necessary tips for housewives"

On my way on a super duper fast "laaxary" enroute to a meeting in Amtala, a vendor boarded and started waxing eloquent on this miracle of a book. Atfirst I ignored him as just one more of those....but then I took one look above and had to buy it, just for the cover. Saksath Maa Durga!

Lo behold

Photo courtesy Nadeem Ahmed

Such a beautiful fruit. And not just visually. And the single tree outside our office window reminds us of those couple of months when the tree will be full of white jamrul, which Hemantada our office peon will pluck and distribute. I don’t think I exaggerate when I say I don’t think I have ever tasted such wonderfully sweet jamruls (aka Jamun). Even after the brief fruit season is over, the tree looms reminding us about the next season and harvest.

Hemanta apart from his sundry other activities, is also in charge of pruning the trees. But he forgets to, sometimes. The Jamrul tree has grown and grown till the branches reached the window just behind my work place.

So far so good. Till, an enormous bunch of caterpillars made the tree their home and crawled up onto the ledge and inside our room. Ugh. The window is now firmly shut. Hemantada has firmly hacked the tree down to its size, but we are still not taking any chances.

A senior consultant was sitting with me when I spied 10-12 of them crawling all around my desk and understandably let out a shriek. He very gallantly removed the bunch, but not before giving me an earful on right to life.

Right to life is alright. But somehow in this context, I am certain, might is definitely right.

Bankable!

I went to my bank this morning to drop a cheque and update my pass book. Yes, there are still a few banks with the old style passbooks. Ofcourse they have moved with the times and pass books are no longer manually updated. Instead the updates are printed ones. I went dot at 10am to finish these chores in minimum time and rush to work. There was only one solitary chap at teller desk. So when I showed him the pass book, he indicated an empty desk which could mean - I don't do the updating / the person who sits at the currently empty desk will update the book / or (hopefully, I thought) he will be here soon and update your pass book.

So, if there is no one to update my pass book, is there? Imagine that. If this chap doesnot turn up, I have to come another day. Call yourself a bank etc. No, I didn't actually say any of these. These thoughts simply flashed through my mind. Thank god I didn't. The updater arrived and did the updating!

Funny. There was once a time, not too long ago, when like any other nationalised bank, the service here was HORRIBLE. Withdrawing money was a herculean task. No wonder, many of the clients tended to rely on personal relations. This involved personally greeting a teller and making silly small talk in the hope that the tellers would stop talking about a recent picnic or stop carping mother-in-law woes or swapping recipes while a serpentine queue fumed silently.

Slowly but surely, their service improved. Any bank transaction is now done quickly, efficiently in a minimum amount of time. So what if core banking has come a little late here. So what if the bank staff still dress in their bengali best (creasy kurtas, choppols & come winter - the multicoloured hand knitted sweaters). So what if the staff are not the super smart staff like elsewhere full of good mornings and how may I help you's?! So what if they don't have an ATM? This one is actually a boon. It has resulted in remarkable savings for me. Busy as I am with a 6 day week, dont get much time to withdraw money which I would have surely and needlessly spent on things I don't need at all.

Earlier, when they only pretended to provide service, we were so polite and ingratiating. Now, in a complete 180 degree turn, the stiff necked bannerjee da's and dhoti clad ghosh babu's patience has increased in direct proportion to their efficiency!