A wonderful story of helping a colleague come out of his habit.

I am working in  Inspection department. This happened when  I was working in Hyderabad  Main Branch.

Hyderabad main branch used to have alcoholic addicted messengers. They used to take hand loans from the moneylenders at a large rate of interest. They used to give withdrawal slips to these moneylenders and the moneylenders used to present those in clearing or over the counter to get their installments.  To curtail this practice  the counter staff were advised not to accept the withdrawals. With the support of the AGM and the union members / office bearers we implemented the payment of salaries of these messengers in the presence of their family members.

One day   one of these alcoholic addicted messenger fell sick and swooned. He was admitted to a hospital as an inpatient , where the bank has reserved beds for the staff members. The hospital authorities after through examination conveyed that three bottles of blood are needed. Many of the staff member volunteers of blood donation refused for this as this person was a habitual alcoholic and donation of blood to him is of no use  and he was unworthy of this type of help.

The family who were illiterates were worried and were unable to purchase blood form the open markets as they were not financially sound enough to meet the expenses. As my persuasion initially failed, I decided to donate my blood. One of my colleague by name Sri Satyanarayana also came along with me for the donation. After a 10 days stay in the hospital he managed to survive and reported o the branch for duty.

Till that time he was in that group of alcoholics  who used to abuse me outside and used to interfere in my personal affairs and used to question why my family is not coming while paying my salary etc. He was a changed man now. A perceptible change was observed in him and he started doing his job with more care and there was a silent and indirect effect of this on other sub staffs who used to approach me for help / settle family problems / guidance on various matters etc.

Even now , when I visit the LHO premises , the substaff / the family pensioners whoo identify me as a guide / supoort person with a wish. It gives me further motivation to continue my support to affected parties / persons.

I personally feel that the help we do should not be remembered or discussed and need not be quoted as sometimes our ego level may be affected / dissatisfied , if the other person could not recognize us.

Sri N V Madhava Rao

I&MA, Hyderabad

Courtesy: Shri P Balachandra Bhat, IL-1, Chennai