I have not heard of English comedian actor - Reginald Alfred "Reg" Varney known for his television roles on The Rag Trade and On the Buses, appearing in the latter's three spin-off film versions. Have you ??
Every day we step out and buy something - would you carry a shoulder bag ? many are always dependent on plastic bags (though there is ban on plastic at many a places). May be you are among one who would carry stylish bag with brand name written prominently - Hermes, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Dior, Fendi, Prada, Bottega Veneta – all known for their luxury and exclusivity.. Ayyo pavam Ones like would carry a ‘kattai pai’ of Saravana Stores or some other textile store like VKTK (Kanchi) / Kumaran .. .. our earlier generation used to carry cloth bags – mostly yellow in colour (Manjal pais) – remember the ones of Popular Swadeshi Store of Triplicane.
In good old PSU days
– salary used to be disbursed in cash on the penultimate day. The Accounts
Section would become too busy with sub-staff going to bank, collecting cash – a
group of people sitting together to prepare the salary cover, putting in cash
of various denominations; some favoured with new notes ! [not to speak of some
employees, who would prepare their own customised salary cover, showing a lower amount than what they got –
to hoodwink their spouses and keep some personal money !!!!] – in those days,
those who took salary by cheque used to get 3 days in advance [there was a
condition that an individual should not be maintaining an account with the bank
on which Office was issuing salary cheque].
Feeling that currency in hand and getting some new notes all were pleasures
of yesteryears ! - gone are such small satisfactions with salary getting
credited and we drawing money from ATMs devoid of smaller changes !
Almost 6 decades ago, on 27th June, the first appearance in UK streets and people in disbelief, talked about taking money from ‘holes in the wall’. The world’s first ATM was unveiled by Barclays at its Enfield branch in north London on 27 June 1967. As a tribute to the golden anniversary, the bank transformed the modern-day Enfield cash machine into gold. most frequently-used payment method by the end of next year.
ATM [Automated Teller Machine] has come a long way as an electronic telecommunications device that enables the customers of a financial institution to perform financial transactions, particularly cash withdrawal, without the need for a human cashier, clerk or bank teller. There are millions, seen in every important Street, Airports, Railway stations, some malls, theatres and more. On most modern ATMs, the customer is identified by inserting a plastic ATM card with a magnetic stripe or a plastic smart card with a chip that contains a unique card number and some security information.
From traditional ‘hole in the wall’ , the original ATM, brainchild of John Shepherd-Barron, from
Inverness, has evolved so much. Mr
Shepherd-Barron died in 2010 at the age of 84. While he was long regarded as
the father of the ATM, another Scot, James Goodfellow, can also lay claim to
the title.The Paisley native unveiled his iteration of the ATM the same year at
Mr Shepherd-Barron.
Despite the rise in other new technologies, such as online and mobile banking, the ATM remains popular 50 years on. ATM’s first user was late English actor Reg Varney. Early dispensers were designed to receive hole-punched vouchers allowing withdrawals of £10 each, which could be purchased by the customer from the bank and inserted in the dispenser when needed.
In
India, HSBC was the first bank to introduce the ATM concept in India way back
in 1987. How many times do you use ATM every month ?.. .. Moving away, ATMs are
not exclusive to Banking and dispensation of money ! – they also vend other
products such as magazines, Milk, chocolates and soft drinks. A few years ago, an Indian Company – Gitanjali Gems, the
world’s largest integrated-branded diamond jewellery manufacturer and retailer,
introduced gold, silver and diamond
sales through vending machines. Understand that in the Middle East, in the lobby of Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace
hotel; ATM dispenses gold bars of 1 and 10 grams, plus a series of gold coins
displaying custom engraved designs.
For commoners like me
the price of Gold or its availability on ATM is never a news, we are more
concerned with brinjals, potato, tomatoes and other vegetables, bought and
carried in cloth shoulder bags !! there
was a time when the cloth bags were seen, were carried by every human on road –
though it is more of a cloth bag coming in various colours, it was identified
as Manjal
pai - மஞ்சள் பை `மஞ்சப்பை' - it simply is not a bag, more of an
emotion.
Well, the news is on
the banks of Kairavini Pushkarini, the temple pond of Sri Parthasarathi swami,
in front of Temple gopuram has sprung up a new ATM, that dispenses ‘manjal pai’
the yellow bag – priced at Rs.10/- - it is quite a hit.
Regards – S. Sampathkumar
11.4.2025
No comments:
Post a Comment