My First Bank.

In 1964 in mid summer when we shifted to Betma it was in development phase like rest of 600,000 other villages in the country. Its proximity to Indore, the largest city of Madhya Pradesh, kept it as modern as possible. There was no electricity, no telephone, no banks, no piped water and many other things that are indicative of progress and prosperity. Fortunately there was a Secondary school that had started as primary in 1915 and quickly moved on to become a high school even before independence. There was a post office also in Betma since a long time, I couldn't figure out when was that established but I think it was there since pre independence era. In those days post offices didn't have a separate staff and were managed by the school teachers alternating as Postmasters. In Betma it was the duty of Mr Anand Rao Joshi who was a primary school teacher, primarily. He was no relation of ours but being the same sub-section Brahmin belonging from Dewas he was know to my parents and we used to call me Mama. He was very humble and honest and did his duties diligently. He had three children all younger to us Prabha, Pratibha and one more. We didn't have much in common but sometimes when we visited them or they visited us, we met. Besides Mr Joshi there was a postman who was the only full time employee in the post office. He helped in taking the dak in a huge khaki tarpauline material waterproof bag to bus stand to load it in some designated bus/buses that went to Indore and Depalpur which being district and tehsil places respectively had bigger post offices that will collect mail from and send mail to Betma. He also delivered mail and money orders to people in the village. There was no telegraph office in Betma either with postoffice or standalone and postmaster went only in the afternoon for a couple of hours even then there was hardly any activity there. 

Our shifting to Betma was lucky for it, as within the same year the work for electricity connectivity began and in a year or so houses started getting electrified, our turn must have come in two years or even later. Around the same time when I was in the primary school studying in the, 5th in late 1965 or early 1966 we got our bank too. Telephone, however, took longer and an exchange that was placed in a premises that department of Post and Telegraph popularly called P&T rented in the house owned by Chandrakunwar's family who lived on one side of the exchange the other being occupied by a Jajoo family whose son Mahesh Jajoo was two year my senior in the school. They had a  big clothing shop in Poora Bazaar managed by his father and uncle Badri Seth. But Betma got telephone exchange between 1969 and 1970 and when that happened it was a bigger excitement than any other invention that patronised Betma. The first telephone connection was given to the Police Station and the honour of first private connection went to Harakchand Seth, unfortunately Jeevanram Seth his father, couldn't get the benefit of this in his life time. I am not sure if the technology used for the exchange was Strowger or Cross Bar but once when I managed to sneak in with someone, I was aghast with the huge machines making lot of noises so much that people couldn't talk there. With just 20 odd connections the relays were constantly making connections and getting disconnecting contributing to the noise level.

There may have been some 10 or 12 racks of large almirah size having lots of wires and up-down switches going here and there. Initially people couldn't make calls from home to anyone and phones just had a receiver (a mic and a speaker combined) but no dialer, as soon as you picked up the receiver it will ring in the exchange and an operator will come on line and ask you who you wish to speak to and connect. I think intially you could call only within Betma and it was more a thrill than a benefit as in the time that you got the connection you could run and talk to the intended person. In later years exchange started connecting out locations also and phones were replaced with a phone with dial. However, subscriber trunk dialing (STD) was introduced in the early eighties only. Speaking to people in Indore wouldn't take more than 5 minutes of connection time but calling someone in Bombay or other places you would have to book a trunk call that sometime will take couple of days to materialise. I will talk more about communication era later as there is a a lot and interesting stories out there. I wondered if people on either side of the exchange premises could sleep or rest properly after it was installed.

Mohan Lal Neema was a respected and pleasant person who studied in school with my father so they must be of same age. After schools my father passed Inter and became a teacher and Neemaji completed his graduation and became a politician. He was member of INC but didn't held any public office not was he ever got elected. But he always appeared busy so must be an important person in the party or because of his connections. I, however, don't know what he did for living. His house was in one end of Poora bazaar soon after which the hugely wide market became narrower. He also had three daughters, two older than me and one younger. Eldest one must be 5 year older than me and the middle one about 2 and the youngest one must have been 2 year younger. Middle daughter who was pretty good looking and petit girl studied with Damu and was a year ahead of me. She was the only one of the three with whom I had some conversations in the school. But in 1965-66, I had no interest or information about them as we were busy playing with our direct friends. Sometime in late 1965 and early 1966, I could see lot of activities in their house at the end of which I saw the shape of the house completely changed. Half the portion where they lived remained same but the other half was modernised with high sealing roof and an open large hall with some partitions. Some days later I saw a big board coming up there with "Bank of India"  written that also had their famous BOI Star logo. 

Not only  people who lived in Betma but people from neighborhood villages were also coming to Poora Bazaar curious and excited about this newest pride of Betma. Many people including me had no idea as to what a bank was and some others explained to them this is a government institution that will give you money at much lesser cost than what Seth Jeevanram offered and you can also keep your money with bank that will be safe ( with the government) . Some sahukars (moneylenders) also felt threatened. Mr Neema had made a permanent arrangement for a regular income by renting this part of the house.

The day of inagration was like a mela, the ribbon was cut by some VIP I think the district collector and everyone was feeling important being there on the first day. Biscuits, samosas and tea was kept out for everyone who walked past. And as a part of the inaugural function an essay competition was organised by Mr Punglia, BOI's branch manager. A tall fair and handsome Mr Punglia was all smiles with the trouble free inaugural function thus far. I was one of the school children who participated in the essay competition and went dressed in my best. I don't recall the topic of the essay but after we submitted our write-ups and judges went through them I was declared winner. Amongst applause I was given the certificate, a writing notebook, a nice plastic footscale with BOI logo engraved on it but the best was yet come and when the guest of honour gave me Rs 25 cash award I was on cloud 9 as I don't recollect if I had seen or touched so much money before. Till date I consider that as my first income that made me feel independent and worthy.

Mr Punglia then explained me about banking in some simple words and requested me to open a savings account in the bank. That I did and hence there started banking journey of my life as an eight year+. People who visited bank several years after its opening found my picture that decorated the walls amongst others as the first day bank customers.

 My love for BOI remained throuhout since and I still hold an account with them.