A banking tale...

Working in the Times of India in the 70s, journalists were paid in cash. Afternoon, on the last day of the month, an attender would walk into the newsroom with named, pay packets in a wooden tray; distribute them to journalists (me got a Rs.400 pay packet as a Journalist Trainee), take their signatures on a register, and that was it. After payback of loans, me started the month with Rs.200 and went back to money lenders by the middle of the month; an ever revolving debt. Me never went to a bank, had no bank account, at the end of the month lived on borrowings or on food served at press conferences and seminars.....life jogged along. Like the Kamal Hasan times in silent film Pushpak; a likeable film; there is no dated feeling; he and the beggar on the footpath never go to a bank, are always in cash, there is not a shot of a bank, life is a laugh; currencies come and go; no IT officials, no Modi surgical strikes; chuckled watching it on youtube in the night; simpler times. In 1976 got married and Rama opened the first bank account at Canara Bank, Dombivili East branch; appa took her to open the account; me avoided the bank; the account got transferred to Borivili and she holds to it for old days' sake; for some delicious memories of never having more than Rs.50 in the savings account; today Rama runs the ATMs, talks easily of credits and debits; does not write cheques; swipes cards buying sarees and sweets and samosas; me am not into it having never gone near an ATM machine; financial powers rest with Rama; am in a fright, scared (cant explain) of banks and bankers. Modisation of currency has not unnerved Rama. My paternal grandfather, a Devarajan, a broke temple priest at Suchindram temple, never heard of banks, probably never saw a bank branch living in Ashramam village; Kannadi Vakil Swami, maternal grandfather, a lawyer without case papers in Kottarakara, did not have a bank account; but he talked of bank and bank accounts as amma retailed financial histories of me generation. 'Pichchakkara (beggars)', she used to exclaim with an odd tear wriggling. Kannadi Vakil Swami, Thatha, promised to pay all during banking hours, when he got pumpkins and raw bananas as fees from broke clients. My grandmothers, well, resided in kitchens. A fixed deposit of Rs.20,000 from Calcutta times is alive on Rama's name in Axis Bank; that my mother got from appa, she passed it on to Rama and the lady has tossed it to son Ganesh .... a family loom, lone family loom. None can touch it. Rama will not allow it.