THE SELECTIONEver since I joined the Bank I have been always been wondering how I am going to work in that place - Tripura. Back then I do not know that banking was a very though job and adding to it was working in an alien place with no language that I cannot understand. The Chief Manager (HR) at Zonal Office, Mr. JP made us to think about the good environment there, this and that. Now that I am finally here, their sweet sounding words are all a bunch of lies and now it sounds like a complete betrayal of trust. What is more appalling is the way the Recruitment and placement works in our Selection Process. I am here describing the way I was recruited here at the State Bank of India.
THE SELECTION PROCESSIt was a very simple process of application, form fill-up and all that, like we normally do for a job application. I sat for the exam and I got through it. Then after a month or so, I was called for an interview that our Imphal Main Branch. I was the second last candidate to be interviewed that day. It went well and I hoping to get selected. Finally a call came from the Zonal Office, Shillong, to present myself in full flesh-and-blood for the final selection process. I received this call just two days before the date they asked me to report!!! I went there somehow and I was told that we all will be undergoing a physical test and on the basis of that, our Appointment Letters will be issued to us. After our Appointment, we will be undergoing another 21 days of Training in Banking at the State Bank of India Learning Centre, Shillong, Laban Last Stop. The dates are as follows:
1) 19th March 2008 – Call from Zonal Office, Shillong
2) 22nd March 2008 – Reporting date at Zonal Office, Shillong
3) 22 - 24th March 2008 – Physical Test
4) 26th March 2008 – Appointment
5) 26th March to 15th April 2008 – Training at SBLC, Shillong.
After the day of our reporting, we were left to bring our physical test reports on 25th and on the next day, we will be given our Appointment Letters. So from 22nd to 25th March, we stayed at Shillong and all the expenses had to be borne by ourselves, unnecessarily. If there is indeed Training, we could have been told to stay at the SBLC, Shillong. This was only suggested by the Trainers there at SBLC only after we told them.
THE MEDICAL TESTNow, let me tell you the way we underwent our so called “Physical Test”. First they instructed all of us that we have to go to this Dr. P.K. Agarwal for our Medical Check-up. This doctor was later found out to be a suspended doctor for some embezzlement of Hospital Fund or something. He then forwarded all of us to a Diagnostic Clinic called the North-East Diagnostic Center. The head of this Diagnostic Clinic, was later found out to be a brother of Dr. P.K. Agarwal. The Center charged us some Rs. 3,300/- for the entire test that they will be diagnosing. And this amount has to be paid from our own pocket. This is only the first of the many instances that we were made to pay for this Testing, that Testing. I am myopic and for us who wear glasses there is an extra Eye-testing for which this Dr. P.K. Agarwal told us to go any Clinic and bring a fit Certificate. Some of our Colleagues said that Dr. P.K. Agarwal who is not at all an eye-specialist, just gave them the Fit-Eye-Certificate for a minimum fee of Rs. 200/-. This is the way it is. Only after completion of all this, Dr. P.K. Agarwal finally gave us a Medical Fit Certificate.
THE APPOINTMENTThe next day, we went to Zonal Office at Dhankheti, and we were given our appointment letters and we were given an address to which we are supposed to go. The Place was State Bank of India Learning Center, Shillong, at Laban Last Stop. We were given rooms to stay some clubbed to 2 or 3 persons. Girls were given totally different furnished rooms to stay unlike us boys.
THE TRAINING – LEARNING PROCESSThe Training days or like the Faculty says “Learning” days that SBLC were most tiring and everything was monotonous. It was all about banking and nothing else. We were made to digest the whole Banking Scenario in just 21 days. The first session starts at 10:00 am – Tea Break at 11:30 am – Lunch at 1:15 pm – second session starts at 2:15 pm – Tea Break at 3:45 pm and the session ends at 5:30 pm. So it was a very tiring. But sometimes after the sessions we roamed around Shillong; sometimes hit a pub or so. We had to.
21 days of Training/Learning went like school days of yester-years. It was over on 15th of April and on this day, we were given our Place of Posting. One of my colleague and I was given Agartala was our Place of Posting. I did not argue with that because it was nothing that we can do. My colleague told the Chief Manager that they are exiling him to Agartala away from home. The thing is that I did not choose Tripura at all when I was filling my Application! But they posted us two at Agartala. And this is just the start of my misery.
THE JOININGOn 17th of April I joined the Agartala Main Branch as a CRA on Probation. The other one was a Bengali friend of mine from Agartala itself. I was told to make myself useful there at the Government Business section and help with the filling and posting of cheques. I did whatever it takes to make myself useful. But things did not turn out as I had expected. The Staff Association leaders told us that we will be “Attached” to some other Branch in Semi-rural area for some months to fill up the shortage of Staff. We protested about it and took the matter to the AGM, Regional Office, Agartala. We told him why we should be there when we are just for the Urban Branches. For other semi-rural, the recruitment process was going on in line. The AGM understood our position and told us that nobody is going anywhere.
Then we had another Training (this time it is Training), and I will tell you why. This time it was for the AMFI and CIF test. AMFI was really a Crash-Course session. We had just 3 days of Training and on the 4th day we had our exam. So we really had to work that hard, really hard. One most disappointing thing is that the day and time of the AMFI exam. Things did not turn out to be exactly as planned. The exam was supposed to start at 3:00 pm that day but the Lady from the AMFI did not showed up till 5:30pm!!! She came directly from Mumbai, Guwahati and then there at Shillong. By then, we were all tired and totally pissed-off. We all gave the exam that started from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm with no hope of getting through. What the hell…who cares about it anyway!! Luckily most of us got through it.After AMFI, with only one Sunday in between, we started for the CIF Training. This time it was lazy and very long week. There was no exam after the Training this time. So we were all cooling and chilling out. It was the most enjoyable week of all these Learning/training sessions.
