Thursday 3 January 2013

Comedy of sms !!!

Well long distance communication over sms can sometimes create confusion. But when the sms is not clearly mentioning the details, it can lead to outright hilarious results. I happened to be on the recieving end of one such situation today. So let me explain exactly what happened.

I was supposed to talk to a guy regarding some bank related issues. It was my friend who gave me his number and details over an sms. The following is the sms that I recieved.

ABC Bank 9891xxxx56 cm aggarwal concerned person ak tyagi reference gk sinha.

Now the funny part is that my friend didn't type the sms. She forwarded it to me. It was typed by Mr. MV Aggarwal who is the relative of Mr. GK Sinha and is my friend's colleague.

I was told, on call, that I am to talk to Mr. AK Tyagi who is the the concerned person and that I have to go to meet him at Maliwara Chowk Branch of the bank. So the platform was set. 

I placed the call on 9891xxxx56 and a guy picked up the call. The following is the dialogue that ensured.

Me: Hello!!
Receiver: Yes, hello!!

Me: Am I talking to Mr. Tyagi?
Rec: No. I am afraid this is a wrong number.

Me: Are you from ABC Bank?
Rec: Yes. May I know whom I am talking to?

Me: This is Shubham Chakraborty. I got your number from Mr. Aggarwal.
Rec: Aggarwal???? This is Aggarwal speaking?? I mean I am CM Aggarwal.

(Now I got confused.)

Me: Well I think ... well see I need to talk to Mr. Tyagi, whose number has been given to me by Mr. Sinha ... I mean Mr. Sinha gave this number to Mr. Aggarwal who is not you but asked me to talk to Mr. Tyagi.

(There was silence from the other side)
Then came the reply.
Rec: Never mind Mr. Shubham, why exactly you want to meet me?
Me: I wanted to meet regarding a bank loan.

Rec: Ok you can come over, I will be waiting.

Me: Sure sir, I will be there soon as I am nearby.

Now I started to search for ABC Bank at Maliwara Chowk. After half an hour of strolling across the the one kilometer road, which is usually full of traffic of all kinds, I was literally exhausted. I asked atleast ten different people about the location of ABC Bank, but to no avail.

Finally I called up Mr. Aggarwal.

Me: Sir, this is Shubham here.
Rec: Ya Mr. Shubham. You didn't come.

Me: I am still searching for your bank. I can't locate it here. I am standing at Maliwara crossing, can you please tell me which way to go?
Rec: Maliwara!!!!??? ABC doesn't have any branch there. Our branch is at Navyug Market. You need to come here.

(My jaws dropped. Navyug market was a couple of kilometers from where I was, may be a bit more. Taking a rickshaw in this frigid conditions was out of question and so was walking. Finally walking seemed to be a better option.)

Anyways I started to walk towards Navyug Market. Was praying to god that I don't want any more surprises.

I didn't get any. Had a smooth discussion with him. He turned out to be a nice person.

Finally when I came out, I gave a call to my friend and told her all that had happened due to that message and that ABC Bank is not at Maliwara but at Navyug Market.

I was also able to figure out that Mr. MV Aggarwal  is related to Mr. GK Sinha who had talked to Mr. CM Aggarwal and given the number to Mr. MV Aggarwal  who in turn smsed my friend which got forwarded to me.

But one thing that is not clear to me yet is who is this Mr. AK Tyagi and how did his name creep into the sms.