Just a few days ago my mother in law expired after a prolonged illness. She was terminally ill for over six months.
To complete the process of cremation an undertaker in a crematorium was identified and was entrusted the job. Entire task was entrusted to him. Our job is just to take the body to crematorium.
At the appointed time we took the body to the crematorium. He received us at the gate and directed us to place the body on a particular platform that was meant to perform the last rituals before the body was offered to funeral pyre. The moment the body was unmounted, he took over the proceedings and was in full control of the things. He had by then ensured that all the items required are in place. He was directing us to perform the rituals in a particular order. He has become an expert in the matter. He is unkempt, not shaven but appeared a little drunken ( perhaps it is quintessential to do that kind of job). While he was directing the things, another two bodies arrived. He was simultaneously directing those bodies to the other vacant platforms and asked them to be in preparedness to perform the rituals.
As soon as we finished the rituals, he asked us to lift the body to the final stage where a bed of firewood was already stacked. After the body was placed on the bed of firewood, he started stacking up another layer of firewood on the body. In the meanwhile another body arrived. He was directing them to another platform. Finally he asked each one of us to place a stick on the body. He asked the person from our family who had been identified to perform the last rites to lit the funeral pyre.
By then I took a count of the bodies already on fire. It was 13. Another three are waiting. There is also lot of rush (customers) for him. But he was managing so ably at least we had not any occasion to be in grumbling against that ugly undertaker. He gave us service which is our money's worth.
The purpose of me narrating this was just to bring out the commitment, the sincerity and the (customer) service he provided for us. (Sorry for speaking the language of banking even in the graveyard. Afterall that is the disease we are suffering from of late and I may not be an exception). He has no threat of competition what so ever for his profession, he is the one and only destination. On top of it a continuous stream of bodies were arriving (customers rush), he had to manage the crowd. He could have been arrogant, audacious and negligent. But he was not. All along I was observing the way he handled the job. He did it ably. Never I found him perfunctory. He was cool calm and focused. He is illiterate, uneducated and people may call him uncivilized. But he executed an uncivilized job in a civilized manner. But still I found a spark of customer service in the lowliest of the profession one could imagine on the earth.
Can we juxtapose this with the circumstances in the Bank? This comparison might appear to be outlandish and outrageous but somehow it caught my attention and I am so sorry for being so uncivilized to talk something in a graveyard and a Bank simultaneously. Afterall, I am a Banker too.
Sometimes - The greatest truths are the simplest.
