Our Reader’s Write

Really deserving of gratitude

We Indians are generally a whining, cribbing, complaining lot. We complain about power cuts, bad roads, stagnant water, dengue, traffic snarls, corruption. Well, the list is endless.

But we fail to see how the Government has taken care of our mental health and well-being, especially those of senior citizens. Medical journals say the brain cells do not degenerate if kept active, so your chance of getting senile dementia is much less. Now let me justify my heading.

As a senior citizen I have to prove to the Government the following – that I am not a cheat trying to evade tax, I have not borrowed heavily from banks and am not trying to flee the country, I have not accumulated black money, l am paying my GST dues regularly, and so on. Now all this keeps my brain active and agile.

Just as I was feeling complacent about my cerebral powers, something happened that shook me out of my comfort zone. My income from rents, interest from deposits, all electronically transferred, stopped altogether. Did I miss any new rule announced by our Prime Minister on the eve of his departure to China? All important announcements are made on the eve of his going abroad. Did he say that unless and until I proved the house was built with clean money the tenant need not pay rent? Things took a turn for the worse next week. My son’s salary was not credited too.

It was left to a septuagenarian tenant of mine to solve the mystery. He pointed out that the IFSC code of the Bank Branch had been changed following the merger of the bank with SBI. Neither the smaller bank nor SBI had informed the clients of this fact. Well, to cut a long story short, we had to inform our contacts of the new code. Some MNCs insisted on a new cheque book to prove our bonafides. All this took a lot of time, effort and energy.

On a more serious note, the Government is contemplating merger of more banks for reasons best known to them. With the brute majority it enjoys, it can put it through. If and when it happens, we senior citizens dependent on pensions and interest from deposits should not be caught unawares. You should be alert enough to inform the sources of your income about the change in the bank codes.

By force of habit I am attaching my Aadhar, Pan Card, KYC documents in triplicate, my driving license, my GST number all duly attested. If, in case, you want to see the original, no problem I shall bring it to your office whenever you want. If you are on leave when I come or have gone out for lunch and may not come for the day again, no problem l shall come again the next day.

After all, the walk and climbing stairs would take care of my physical well-being as well. With both my mental and physical well-being taken care of, what more could l want.

Prema Raman
88, Harrington Road
Chetput, Chennai 600 031

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