Monday, April 28, 2008

A bank, 6 migrant workers, an ATM & I......

A title like that without a doubt sounds as if it wont make it to a great success, it being a movie or a novel is of little relevance. At certain times you come across people who are very helpless in figuring things out due to a battery of reasons. The countless number of reasons are at times innate or otherwise caused by their new environment into which people is trying to adapt. Whichever reason it may be, I think, if one were to come across such a person(s), help should be forthcoming.

During my lunch hour, as usual, I ate whatever there was in the cafe and came off after paying the bill. Noticing that I was short of cash, the obvious thing would be to get some. It was a blessing that next to the cafe there happened to be a bank. I made my way to the bank, and got ready to take out the cash. As I thrust my card into the ATM a group of 6 guys streamed into the same place. There were about 6 machines, but this lot was sticking together like in a action scene from "tour of duty". Wow.... that film is ancient as I can recall, but very entertaining, but I only realised later its underlying reality as I came to be a bit older (actually when studying literature in high school). Moving on, i was punching in my pin number and entering the withdrawal amount. While doing this I sensed one of the six leaning over my shoulder unaware of the implications of his actions. He then said something to the other chaps who whispered to each other, and I was thinking "what the fuck is going on?!?". After the cash came out of the machine I was getting ready to leave the bank when one of them made a bold move.

That guy came up to me with a confused and helpless look on his face, while I was trying to move towards the door. He cut me across, and extended his hand towards me, which had an ATM card in his grasp. He gestured from his hand pointing at the ATM and mimicking the manner in which a card is entered into the machine. I realised that this lot needed help to operate the ATM in order to withdraw money. Believe it or not, I taught the procedure to all of the 6 guys individually so that they would remember. Some could not understand English, but there was one chap who knew a little bit and he made the rest understand the entire scenario. One particular guy had written his pin number on a piece of paper. When his time came, the guy whisked out the small piece of paper and started to punch the numbers like a child would do. At that point I signaled to him in a non-verbal manner. I put my palm over his piece of paper and shook my palm at a fast pace over it, and I shook my head simultaneously. Then when he frowned at me, I pointed at the piece of paper and then tapped my head with my finger. He seemed to get the idea so it was good enough for me. I withdrew the money for all of them and sent the guys on their way.

The 6 workers were from Bangladesh who had come for employment. How I knew their origins was from the language they spoke. Since I had associated quite a number of Bangladeshis' in my campus it was not hard to identify the lingo. It is guaranteed that those chaps have never been exposed to technology of this sort, thus all the commotion and confusion. I think my good deed for the day was quite very well done.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well said.