Thank You to all the Bank Managers

Goodness still exists in this world. Though not completely, but to a considerable extent.

Mr. Mahendra Garasia, Sr. Branch Manager at Bank of India in Surat, Gujarat, is one such example. His actions prompted me to write this special note of thanks.

The entire admission process is lengthy and complicated. To make matters even more difficult is the huge cost which education at FLAME involves. Like many other batch mates from the college, the completion of the documentation and securing (almost) a loan from the bank has been a huge task for me.

I belong to a middle class family and lived in many towns and cities in the past; sometimes for education sake and sometimes for work. So have my parents who, by now, are tired of shifting houses. We are presently in Surat where we have been stagnant for some time now.

I have a long list of banks turning down my plea for an education loan. The biggest obstacle being that we don’t have a property or other collaterals such as insurance policies, fixed deposits, etc. People appreciated the merit, congratulated on looking at the past records, got impressed as well, but when it came to going out of the way to help a deserving candidate, they all stepped back.

This is when I met Mr. Garasia who studied every single word of my entire application. He looked at all the academic transcripts and the certificates which I had received while at college and later at my work place. His conclusion was: I will help you in whatever manner possible to ensure that you don’t have to suffer or re-think about education just because of money.

His words are still resounding in my ears just as clear as always when he said that bank managers need to change their paradigms today. When managers provide funds for education to a deserving or needy student and help him/her in making a career, they should look at it as an opportunity.

I salute to your values Mr. Garasia and promise that this lesson which you have taught me today, I would replicate whenever I am capable of.

Though my loan is yet to be approved (I am still stuck with getting two wealthy local guarantors) but this motivation which I got from Mr. Garasia, will help me tackle most of the obstacles in the processing.

I should also thank my friend Pallav from the birth place Raniganj, who got my father’s tax file collected from the Chartered Accountant and sent it across to me in a day’s time. I am obliged to my friends in Kolkata, Shreya and Sumit, who ran from the college to the University to help me get my transfer certificate, apply for migration certificate, etc. I would also like to thank my brother and sister in law who sent me the initial advance fee all the way from Australia without me asking for it.

On this Blog today, I would also like to make an appeal to all the readers that let us thank that special someone, who has helped us in even a small way to help us in reaching where we stand today. There are many occasions in life when people just appear out of nowhere and help you when you least expected them to. Let us thanks each one of them out here.

A few lines of memories, in respect of these people, would not take long to write. Please share your experience with these special people so as to send your homage in a small way. If you have an interesting tale to share, then send it across to flamepune@gmail.com and I would post it for others to see. Let us give these men and women of honor whatever little we possibly can.