I had been to the Tumkur branch of a leading private sector bank last week for transferring funds from my account to a friend's account through NEFT. I am a customer of this branch ever since the branch was opened a couple of years ago. In fact I have been a customer of the same bank, having an account with their Bangalore branch, for more than 12 years. I walked into the branch premises and met a 'Personal Banker', who asked me to fill the necessary details on the NEFT Application Form and give a cheque for the amount of money to be transferred. I did so, and affixed my signature on both the form as well as the cheque in front of him. I was asked to wait for a couple of minutes, after which I was handed over an acknowledgement for the transaction.
As soon as I got back to my office, I received a telephone call from the bank that there was a mismatch of my signature and I had to report back. I drove back to the bank. When I reached there, the staff in the concerned section told me that there is a mismatch between my signature in the documents that I had submitted and the original signature as per the bank's records. Since, I did not notice any deviation, I asked him what the 'difference' was. He told me that the 'curve' in the second part of my signature was not matching! I was taken aback as the difference was minute. I never knew that the 'curvature' of a curve in my signature had so much of 'importance'. I was really annoyed for two reasons. In the first place, when the account holder has submitted the documents in person and that he had affixed the signature in front of the staff member, why was he so sticky on such a minute deviation in signature. I would have appreciated the bank's alertness, had the cheque been presented by a third party. Secondly, when I was waiting in the branch for taking the acknowledgement, why did he not check the same; which, had he done, would have saved my time and energy. Then the staff member slipped a white paper to me and asked me to give an undertaking that I have submitted the documents myself in 'person'! This was the height of stupidity and I refused to do so. I shouted back at him "can't you see me standing in front of you? and you want me to write the same and give it to you?!"
By this time, a lady, who was in-charge of the branch, as the manager was on leave, came rushing. She took me to her cabin and told me that I could give a 'change of signature' application and solve the issue! I asked her, when I haven't changed my signature, how would I give a 'change of signature' application? I also told her that I am not a machine and minute variations in signature are quite possible. Since, the transaction was very urgent, which could not have been postponed, unwillingly I agreed to give the above application. This was the funniest moment. The form had two adjacent columns, 'the existing signature' and 'the new signature'. I asked her "when my 'existing signature' and 'new signature' are the same, how would I fill this form". She told me that the 'existing signature' should look exactly same as the one available in the bank's records and the 'new' one should be the way it appeared in the documents submitted by me that morning. To help me, she turned the screen of her computer towards me, on which my 'so called' original signature appeared. Now I had the daunting task of 'copying' my signature. I said, a bit loudly, "madam, during the last twenty-five years of affixing signature on various documents, this is the first time I am asked to 'copy' my own signature from another document". Hearing this, everybody, including that lady burst into laughter. I managed to do a reasonably good job of 'copying' my signature! An experience, that comes, but rarely, in one's life, I suppose!
