LOGANATHAN, LADY LUCK & ME!

LOGANATHAN, LADY LUCK AND ME

     It was off to the bank as usual one morning a couple of decades ago. On the way I was preoccupied with thoughts of the ensuing half yearly closing, and deposit targets not yet reached.  The shortfall was Rs.10 lakh and I was wondering where on earth I could tap this amount.  Being the Manager of a prestigious branch in Bangalore, my superiors presumed that money simply flowed in at my command. But that wasn’t the way it worked.  Even my efforts with the regulars who helped me at this time every half year were unsuccessful.  They pleaded lack of surplus funds owing to a ‘tight situation’ year.

     I was a worried person when I entered my cabin, and not in the best of moods. To crown it all, I found Mr.Loganathan there.  He was a small borrower, always with a despondent face and even more so when he came to request a temporary overdraft. I suspected this was the case today and wasn’t up to tackling his problem as well as mine. “Why couldn’t he be a well-heeled depositor instead?”,I thought to myself in irritation.  But I managed to muster up enough politeness and asked what I could do for him.

     Mr.Loganathan waved a lottery ticket at me.  Irritation turned to anger as I imagined that he now wanted to use our finances to gamble. And then - this man who seldom smiled and never looked me in the eye when making his financial requests, excitedly shoved a newspaper under my nose.  He pointed to the results of the Karnataka State Lottery – the bumper prize number in particular, and set down his ticket next to it.  He was mumbling in a state of shock that he had WON, yes WON! WON! WON! - Rs. 22 lakh!, and could he please deposit the amount with our branch. COULD HE???!!  I couldn’t believe it!  I would have hugged the man, but restrained myself, knowing he would squirm with embarrassment, and I didn’t want any rival bank manager getting hold of him.  So, calming down, I bundled him into my car and drove him to Vidhana Veedhi.  We didn’t budge till the ‘powers that be’ finally decided that Mr.L was the authentic winner and issued him the prize cheque.  Needless to say, both of us went laughing all the way back to the bank!

      I got my reward too, for surpassing my target – the Best Managed branch in Karnataka Region.

(Jacqueline Colaco is a former executive of Bank of Baroda).