You are right. Individuals can and do make a difference but one rarely comes across them in Banks. The service of our nationalized bank has improved in the last 2 years but they are way behind in infrastructure.
There is a joke I would like to mention in this context.
Two people were traveling in a train. One person(A) was rich and extremely knowledgeable and the other guy(B) was poor and ignorant but had good earthy intelligence. B challenged A with a bet that if A asked B a question and B could not answer, B would pay Rs 5/- to A but if B asked A a question and A could not reply, A had to pay Rs 50/- since he had the advantage of knowledge.
A agreed and asked B a question and B could not reply and had to pay the Rs 5/-
Then B asked A a question, Tell me an Animal with 5 heads, twenty arms, forty legs etcetc.
A could naturally not answer and had to pay back the Rs 45/-
There is a book on successful intelligence where the author points out how creative and analytical intelligence are useless without practical intelligence
My dealings with nationalized banks would remind me of the joke above and it seems that even the private sector banks want to continue the trend.
Last summer, when we asked one of the executives of HDFC bank to summarize all facilities(phone,mobile,internet banking) on one page. He said that he would have to ask his seniors and I just walked out because these are the kind of answers one gets in nationalized banks. In another case, they reduced the principle(instead of interest) amount by tax amount and to top it all tried to defend it. Its like a chart action trying to support the wrong signal.
The ICICI fellow gladly presented everything on one page. However they have their own stories. They refuse family members to see each others accounts on the computer on power of attorney though one can even withdraw money from anothers account on power of attorney. There has to be a practical system because feeding 15 huge codes alongwith their huge passwords is dreadfully slow compared to the old system of simply getting the passbooks updated. The ICICI bank terminal also functions somewhat haltingly. They say that all accounts have to be in ones name to see collectively on computer. Which bloody fool is going to open so many accounts in ones own name?
You are right about the ATM machine not being able to replace human beings. But then, they should exercise that discretionary judgement. There is a time to follow a rule and a time to play a role and more often than not they fail in this respect. One well known CNBC commentators had mentioned in one of his newsletters that to succed in shares one has to know when to follow a rule and when to break a rule. I think it is largely true for life too for no rule can be followed blindly like a "Paththar ki lakeer". Even in our Shastras, discretion or "viveka" is given significant importance.
Jaideep, since you are a marine engineer
I belong to commerce and only in poetry you can be my peer
For me, in this forum, you and credit are a cause for cheer
Your classy poetic expressions sometimes make you sould like a mystic/seer
We should continue the poetic banter alongwith trading ideas to profiteer
Someday I hope this exchange to be by the seaside over a bottle of beer
How I wish like shares, poetry too could be made a profitable career.
Jokes apart, now that you have told me about your backgroumd, I can understand that tsunami connection.