So many SBI jokes...I have amazing experience at SBI despite whatever else you may say. This incident is from 2005 Bengaluru...I had to get forms for CAT and other MBA entrances from SBI. Was working as Software Developer in E-City. The nearest branch they were available were 1/n

Hosur Road branch opposite Christ college. I made an excuse & left work. My agenda was to get back within 1.5 hrs back at work which would make up for lunch other breaks and before my billability for the day got affected. So I didn’t take any break and before lunch started 2/n

My aim was to reach before the SBI well in time before the lunch hour but since I was traveling by bus (E-city didn’t have much auto service & those days Ola & Uber didn’t exist and I was a new software developer with limited means) I reach just 5 min before the lunch hour 3/n

By the time I got to know the right counter and my turn in queue it was lunch hour and I was super frustrated thinking that now i will have to wait 1 hour and post that 30-40 min and then 30-40 min to reach back which meant I will have to stay back till late & ask Mgr for cab 4/n

Mgr would ask why I needed cab & it would be difficult to explain...so will have to take shuttle and then walk till home (not very safe option and also shuttle took a lot of time as it meandered the entire city). Anyways I didn’t have a choice so I sat dejected on the chair 5/n

cursing my stars, feeling super hungry but there wasn’t a canteen or shop I could go to. Now this super sweet lady in her early 40’s asks me if I am hungry and shares her dabba:..I politely decline but feel better at her hospitality & warmth 6/n

She then asks me why am I there...I tell her for the form. She asks me if I am a student. I tell her I am a new hire at Infy & planning to give my CAT. She asks me what made me come at lunch hour & I tell her that my bus came late & I reached 40-45 min later than expected 7/n

She asks me if my Mgr knows .:.i tell her no and that I will need to now make some stupid excuse but it’s ok will manage and overstay at work to make it up. She gets up from her dabba half way. The guy next to her asks why she is getting up mid way. She says to help me 8/n

It’s a 5 min job for me to submit my request for application. Pay money at counter. Get receipt and get the form. I should be working or studying and not wasting time like this. The guy tells her to sit and finish her food & asks me to come with him. He asks me for some xerox 9/n

I didn’t have it. He does it for me personally. Then gets me the form. Does paper work. In 10 min I am done. By the time this lady has finished her lunch and she gets a dabba for me to have laddus. I again politely decline. She says it’s Tirupati laddu. So I pick a small 10/n

piece like Prasad and touch it to my forehead and eat. She tells me atb and says I will get selected. I thank both of them and leave finishing the task in my target time of 1.5 hr. I haven’t seen that warmth for an ordinary citizen in any other bank 11/n

I have personal relationship mgrs at all major banks now and they are helpful but because they see me as a decent customer now with investment potential. But only at SBI I found that connect and warmth when I was a nobody and they didn’t stand to gain from me. 12/n

A villager who can’t speak a word of English, a poor person seeking pension of few hundred rupees, or a depositor making a simple deposit of ₹ 50/100 would get the attention and help. Its super easy to make fun but SBI reaches where the fancy banks don’t. It empowers those 13/n

who are the most marginalised in the society. It works on numbers that bigger banks would kill for. It works inspite and despite its challenges, it’s legacy burden and its bureaucracy! And that’s not easy! 14/n