Certainly, it seems true enough that there’s a good deal of irony in the world. I mean, for years I had been giving instructions to my son on each and everything and now I’m at the receiving end.

My son had transferred Rs 20000 which he advised me to draw from an ATM. Gone are the days when we used to stand in queues inside a bank to get money. My son gave me a set of instructions on swiping the card, keeping the pin safe and collecting the money from the machine. He stressed on the secrecy of PIN. I memorized the pin like a child who memorizes tables in his first grade.

While I completely read through the instructions I prepared myself to walk to the ATM and withdraw money. I was excited on my way but the recent news of a woman being attacked in an ATM made me feel a bit uncomfortable. With these fears and excitement running parallel in my mind I walked past the ATM which strained my old legs more.

Seeing a security guard outside the ATM alleviated my fears to some extent. I found a small queue outside the ATM which gave me some time to observe the process at an ATM.A few moments later my turn came. I entered and with all the confidence in the world I inserted my card. To my surprise the card is taken by the machine while my son asked me to just swipe the card. I panicked and stood there for few minutes. Seeing me worried the guard came to my rescue. After I explained to him my problem he told me that there is also another type of ATM which requires inserting the card instead of swiping.

After the successful insertion of the card I tried to check whether the machine was working or not. I entered the memorized pin and entered the cash to be withdrawn as Rs 10.the machine displayed “sorry your transaction is below the minimum level. Please enter valid amount.” The message infuriated me and with a frown on my forehead I approached the watchman. I complained to him that the ATM has no money.

He disagreed with me and asked me to try again in his presence. He followed me and when I was about to enter the PIN I asked him to close his eyes. He looked puzzled but followed my orders. And when I entered the amount to be withdrawn as Rs 10 he aborted the attempt and informed me that minimum balance to be withdrawn from an ATM is Rs 100 and left the room.

After the latest enlightenment the watchman bestowed upon me, I tried with Rs 100 in the beginning and then after a few more attempts I withdrew the entire cash. Like any other Indian of my generation I stood there counting the money five times. Then a young lady in her early twenties in a sarcastic tone told me that the machine gives money only after counting and there’s no need to count it a dozen times. I stood there embarrassed when others burst out into laughter. How can i expect this generation to understand my problem when they can’t even understand their own.

With the same look on my face and cash in my bag I reached home.

All these technological advancements make life more miserable for people of my generation especially to those who live alone. People may call me a Luddite when I say I loathe this new way of taking money from a bank. I agree that it minimizes our effort but I beg to differ that it is an uphill task for people like me.

And to sum up my first experience of using an ATM it goes in the lines of Murphy’s law ‘‘Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”.