Click WWW for Everything, Almost

When I was planning for the SFO tour, I made all the arrangements from booking flight tickets to hotel room reservations online. There was no need to call or visit anywhere prior to the travel. Even when my uncle wanted to buy fruit at 11 'o' clock in the night, I was able to locate a fruit store nearer to my hotel with directions. So the life is simplified and eased to the comfort of any simple man by the Global Internet. It may not appear ludicrous now to say News travel faster than sound with the help of Internet. The once large strange world is brought to our reach just by a few clicks.

So I can easily say that 'almost' everything can be achieved with Internet. I say 'Almost' because, my recent experience with opening a bank account with Citibank through online became a waste of time as it still needed the help of snail mail service or fax for a signature and address proof. In the world of digital security, the need for a hand written signature as an identity confirmation created a confused impression for me. Also though we say Internet has brought the world as Global Village, it appears that the WorldWideWeb is allowed to handle US customers only. So after my initial registration online, I was asked to call the customer care to give the same details again to open the bank account. As everyone would say "I know what it is like to call customer care", after hours of talking and repeating same things and even faxing all the necessary documents twice to avoid the delays of snail mail, it happened that the fax has not reached the Citibank office and I have to call the customer care again to check on the status after few more days. Frustrated after waiting for more than a month and still not able to open a bank account, I decided to give up on using Citibank.

Coincidently, I had to take my colleague who came from India recently to Bank of America office last week during the lunch break. So when he went with the assistant to open an account for him, I used the opportunity and I also opened a savings bank account within the next 30 mins. That was faster than billing in Wal-mart and it was my second best experience in opening bank account. The first being with ICICI Bank when I joined Infosys in Bangalore. All the freshers were seated in a large auditorium and the forms were circulated to everyone like exam papers. At the end of next 10 mins, the forms were collected back and my first own Debit card was in my hands ready to be swiped.