I’ve never had any problems writing cheques. Not that there was much in the bank to be flashing these pieces of paper. But seriously, we are are only talking about writing, using pen on that colored paper. I don’t really know why writing cheques and depositing monies in the banks has never caught the attention of inventors. While transferring money has become easier, and net banking, debit/credit cards have become a major force to reckon, there are still some old fashioned businesses, at least in our parts of the world that continue to pay monies in cash or issue a cheque. Likewise, some of them, even though large enough to adopt modern practices are not happy accepting Electronic Clearing System. Yesterday, I had one such commitment to fulfil.

There I was, planning for a nice holiday on March 13th. I had shopping to do, and before that, I had to complete tax formalities, which eventually got carried over to today anyway. I’d placed rice on the gas stove, and the cooker was hooting merrily knowing fully well that I was unable to concentrate on what I was supposed to. So I filled in the cheque leaf, and thankfully I was able to sign without any problem. As a habit, the date is the final bit. Oh I forgot, this is 2011, and not 2010. Well, that cheque had to be torn as the validity period is just six months out here, and banks in India no longer accept corrections on cheques. So I took another leaf. Even as I started filling the name of payee, the cooker whistle reminded me like a child that it needs my attention. I made an error in the payee’s name. There went another leaf. So I got up, went into kitchen, switched off that pestering aluminum container and was finally able to write that cheque, without any mistakes.

This drew my attention to many such transactions in our day to day lives. Today is second, and I have to deposit a cheque in the bank. I have to fill in a deposit slip. Luckily, people are not fastidious about the contents on deposit slip. But frankly, I have to squeeze the content in that tiny space that they provide. I do make mistakes there, even when there is no cooker whistling away to glory. It does take some time to fill and verify all that, and repeat the work, and again verify.

So my wish list from all you electrical and electronic gadget inventors would’ve been a nice gadget that recognizes my voice instead of my signature, that recognizes my thumb impression (I’ve to be uneducated for that out here), and that generates the name of the payee, and the amount and date. Only when I say yes that is right, I should get to print it on cheque, for which there should be a slot. Likewise, I should also get a paying slip, which incidentally can be uniform across the world. Wonder why Basel guys didn’t think of it. I think it would save some paper, especially in the hands of people who are bundle of nerves like me. Do I hear the word green somewhere? But am I outdated? I mean is it only in my country that we still use hard cash and cheques?

Finally, did you ever wonder how much time Bill Gates would’ve spent writing those cheques, before Melissa Gates entered his life?