*What a Gesture....*

 *What a Gesture....* 

This is an anecdote involving an ex Army soldier, who after retirement, was working with the *Syndicate Bank* . 

There are not many people like this soldier. He is Col AK Jayachandran of 12 ASSAM. 

 _*Read on.....this is his account....*_ 

"In life there are some days when one feels terrible & some days, when one feels really good from within. 

One such happened on a Friday evening at around 7 pm last year in Sep. I was set to go home from the Bank. 

One clerk & an officer were all who remained in CPPC. The phone rang. I hesitated for a minute & then picked it up. It was a Veteran Honorary Captain. 

He was irate & sounded quite fed up. To cut a long story short, he'd approached his bank's branch to settle his dues from his son's pension, which had not been correctly calculated. They'd kept fobbing him off - talk to CPPC. He could rarely get through & couldn't explain his problem properly either. Finally he got my number from someone & called. I took his details - told my guys to take a look at it & tell me if he was really due. They did that & yes....there were arrears due to him. 

I called the Veteran to tell him that we would do it on Monday & credit it on Tuesday latest. Looking at the printout, I saw the name, *Capt Manoj Pande* ... No Wife ... Pension to Parents ... Date of Death ...Kargil war days . 

Speaking to the old man at 7:30 pm, I asked him if he was the father of *Param Vir Chakra (PVC), late Capt Manoj Pande.* He confirmed. I said I would call again. Meanwhile, my staff had closed ther systems.... both youngsters....ready for a weekend. 

I sat them down & told them that we had a "PVC", who hadn't been paid his dues by the bank. I gave them a short brief on what Kargil was all about. Told them that we had to credit the dues tonight. 

They quietly went to their table & switched on their system. In the next one hour, they worked out his dues & arrears, which was around 8 Lakhs. This amount was credited into his fathers account at about 9 pm. 

I called up the father & told him that his account had been credited...he was very surprised...said it could've waited till Monday. I apologised for the banks delay & told him that having come to know, waiting till Monday would have been the biggest disrespect/dishonour to the PVC, so we had to do it tonight. I then asked the father to speak to both my boys ...they paid their respects to him. 

The old man thanked us & broke down ...he said that this one act had accorded more respect to the memory of his son, than any other civilian award. It was an emotional moment.   

REALLY A NICE GESTURE, FIT FOR A HERO OF THE NATION