State Bank Of India Branch at Howrah Railway Station.

State Bank of India, Howrah Station Branch.

On our way back from Andaman Trip, we again transited through Howrah Railway Station. As we had plenty of time in hand, to pass time Priti & I roamed all around the Station. In old Howrah Station complex saw this branch of State Bank Of India. It brought back floods of memories. I just could not resist taking photos of the Branch. The reason for that is that We remember this branch with great fondness and gratitude, and for a good reason.

The year 1988
We were posted from Secunderabad to Shillong. With the advance of pay, we had spending money in 100 rupee notes. Unfortunately, one of those notes was slightly torn. During the long journey from Secunderabad to Howrah, I tried to give it to every trader, vendor, cooli, Chaiwala, coffeewala etc without any success. Gradually notes from the slim wad of 100 Rs with which we had started was dwindling. All my, by now desperate, efforts to pass on that torn note were fruitless as even the fruit wallas refused to accept that note.
Finally, by the time we reached Howrah, we were left with only two hundred rupee notes, of which one, was torn and no one was willing to accept it. So effectively we had only 100 Rs at Howrah Station. With Ajeet & Anuj also with us and still more than 48 hours of the journey left, to say that we were in a hole and badly off would be putting it mildly.
When we saw this SBI branch at the railway station, desperate that we were, I marched into Managers Office. Explained our predicament and presented him with the torn 100 rupee note. He was a very good fellow & gave me a brand new crisp 100 Re note. I thanked him profusely and ran all the way to Sanik Aramgrah to give this very good news to Priti who was very very worried and close to tears.
Her smile on realising that we now had all of 200 Rs was worth all the gold in the world.
We reached Shillong with some change still jingling in my pocket.
Long live Howrah Stn SBI Branch.