Those of you who live in and around Adyar would know of Canara Bank's ATM near Ambika Appalam Depot for the following reasons,
1. It was the first ATM to open doors for other banks' cards to be used without any service charge.
2. There are invariably 5-6 customers in queue to use it at any given point in time.
3. It doesn't work 99% of the time.
4. When it does work, it refuses to dispense cash if the requested amount is greater than 2500 bucks.
5. It holds the record for "eating" the maximum number of credit/debit cards!
And on a fine Monday (!!!!) morning at around 7 in the morning, I decided to withdraw some cash & made my way to the ATM to find just one person ahead of me, waiting to use the machine. I was pleasantly surprised that there weren't many people around & gave myself a pat on my back for the timing! The female who went in ahead of me did not take much time to process her request, but, when she tried coming out of the ATM, the exit button did not work & she found herself stuck inside! She tried the button a few more times & finally, I used my card from the outside to open the door and let her out. A week or so back, the same thing had happened & the customers in the queue helped each other out, opening the door for each other. So, this time around, I asked the lady if she would wait outside for a couple of minutes so that she could let me out. She agreed & I went in to withdraw some cash.
The lady who was supposed to be outside was nowhere to be found when I wanted to get out & I was stuck in the ATM! I was so enraged that I started banging on the door trying to get the attention of any passer by! 5 minutes passed, 10 minutes passed, 15 minutes passed & not a soul was to be found! The bank normally opens at 9 in the morning & it was only close to half past seven at that time. I finally decided to call a friend of mine (Natasha aka Tasha) & asked her to come to the ATM and "rescue" me. She agreed & when she finally turned up, she made me agree to a deal that I'd take her home and introduce her to my nephew who had come down from the UK for his holidays. I told her it was a bit early to be barging in to my place and bonding with my nephew & agreed to take her to Sangeetha for breakfast instead.
We were at the signal waiting to cross the road when from the other side a couple of "gentlemen" decided to let my friend know that they thought she looked like Lekha. They made couple of mistakes.
1. This was in full view of the traffic cop who was manning the infamous (a minimum of 10 accidents occur at this signal every week) signal. On second thought, this really did not matter.
2. Tasha hates Lekha Washington :P
She was enraged (:P) and decided to yell back, bellowing expletive after expletive at the guys! Fortunately for them, before she could stroll across and strangle them, the signal fell favourably for them & they escaped. She then walked across to the cop & asked him to register a case of eve teasing. He flatly refused saying that there wasn't enough identity/proof/evidence & we should get on with our lives! This enraged her even more & before she got herself in to further trouble, I pulled her away from the cop & calmed her down! He was right in a way because we had no clue about the identity of the guys! But there really must be a better way to put it across.
The day that followed was far more pleasant and memorable. We ended up seeing the new Batman movie. Heath Ledger is plain awesome! And we emptied half of the Adidas showroom in T. Nagar!
Two things to be learnt from that particular day,
1. No matter how good Madras is turning out to be, the problems of eve teasing still persists. Not just in colleges or when women are alone, but, in broad daylight in a crowded place like Adyar. The law is still not strict enough on eve teasing. When I told my Dad in the evening, he said that during his teenage days in Calcutta, the public would beat the crap out of any suspect. Vigilante justice might not be a bad idea, but, the change should come from within.
2. Always read the small signs stuck on the door of an ATM which says stuff like, "Door does not open from the inside. Please leave it open & process your request."
