(AI translated version of : जहांगीराबाद की डायरी)
Chapter-1
23 April 2022
Mr. Kamlesh Solanki, you are being sent as the manager of our new branch in Jahangirabad. This is a very posh area. Big businessmen and officers live there. You have to persuade them to take a gold loan from your finance company by pledging the gold kept in their house. Considering the nature of the area, we have set a target of giving loans of around Rs 2 crore every month. Hope you will easily achieve this target with your cleverness. The General Manager of Smooth Gold Loan Finance Company said this to Kamlesh Solanki during the meeting called to open the branch in Jahangirabad. Solanki became happy after hearing about his promotion and said in confident words – Yes Sir! I will maintain the trust you have shown me and will work hard to develop that branch into a branch that gives more loans than the target.
25 May 2022
About a month after this meeting, a new branch of Smooth Gold Loan Finance Company was opened in Jahangirabad. Media persons and eminent citizens of the area were called on this occasion. Local MLA Ram Prasad Sharma inaugurated the branch by cutting the ribbon. Local people and dignitaries thoroughly enjoyed the lunch organized on this occasion.
5 June 2022
But contrary to Solanki’s expectation, even after ten days of inauguration, only two people applied for gold loans. Overall only an amount of Rs 5 lakh could be distributed as a loan. Seeing such poor performance of the branch, Solanki called a staff meeting and wanted to understand the reasons why the target could not be achieved.
11 June 2022
In the meeting, cashier Vishnu Nagpal said that perhaps it is a posh area. The residents of Jahangirabad belong to the higher-income group. Therefore, they do not need much to take a loan. Assistant Manager Shahrukh Qureshi said that perhaps people prefer to sell gold rather than keep it as a mortgage. That’s why our customers are coming less. It is also possible that they find it safer to keep the gold in their own home instead of ours. Overall, as many people as many things. Solanki was not satisfied with anything anyone said. In the end, he said – Whatever may be the reason, the gold kept in people’s homes should come to our branch as collateral. Otherwise, our branch will fail. You also think about increasing the business of the branch and I also plan something.
7 July 2022
Then came Wednesday afternoon. Most of the men in the colony had gone to the market or offices for their work. The children had gone to school. Many houses in Jahangirabad were occupied only by women or elderly people who were either engaged in their daily work or resting. When Suman Tripathi, who lives on the second floor of Vandana’s Apartment there, came to the balcony to dry her clothes, she heard a hawker’s voice – Get your gold and silver jewelry shined. He thought why not get the about fifty tola gold ornaments lying in the safe of the house shined?
(To be contd….)
(Imaginary Story )
