Children are more observant than assumed

Do not underestimate that toddler in the house. He or she is extremely sharp, intelligent and observant. Recently, while chatting with a colleague's three-year-old daughter, a friend asked jovially,

"Hey, little one, what does your father do?" Pat came the reply, "He watches television!"

The reply stunned the friend and our colleague and his wife, who kept looking at each other and vowed to change their TV viewing habits!

False alarms
Of the forty-odd press notes that our newsroom receives every evening, at least 20 go straight into the dustbin. And here is why: Recently, one of reporter colleagues got excited when he received a four-page press note signed by a lady, who claimed to be a victim of land encroachment and atrocities. Sensing a juicy story, our colleague rang up the lady.

The lady admitted having signed the press note, but asked our colleague to call up later, as her husband was not at home. The lady could not give details about the encroachments either. She simply said, "The incident happened a month ago, hence I do not recollect it well. Only my husband will be able to tell you the details." Needless to say, the press note went into the dustbin.

Party time, any time
Crime reporters are a busy lot. According to our colleague on the crime beat, their group has tried hard to meet for a coffee break, but had failed due to the daily workload.

Recently, the city's crime reporters gathered at 11.30 am for a press conference on an alleged case of cheating. However, several minutes after the appointed time, it was announced that the press conference had been called off.

The reporters were obviously upset and frustrated that their valuable time had been wasted. Just then one of them suggested that they get some much-needed coffee and gossip. Always, a dark cloud has a silver lining.

Buffaloes can regulate traffic too
Our congested traffic clogged roads can throw up the weirdest surprises. One of our lady colleagues, who was headed home on her two-wheeler, witnessed this incident at the traffic junction near Rakshak Society on the Aundh-Chinchwad Road recently.

The traffic signals had failed and a free-for-all had ensued, resulting in a traffic jam. No vehicle was ready to budge an inch to let others proceed.

Just then a couple of buffaloes ambled on to the road. This had a dramatic effect on the motorists. Many of them vehicle owners began backing to make room for the buffaloes. Automatically, a portion of the road cleared up and the traffic started moving. Strange as it may seem, the buffaloes had done the job of traffic policemen!

When the customer speaks up
In this age of market competition, some of our nationalised banks do not seem to have woken up from their slumber. Recently, our colleague witnessed this scene in a nationalised bank in Kothrud.

A customer asked a lady bank clerk for some information. The clerk just did not budge and continued talking on her cellphone.
The customer had to wait for a full five minutes before the lady clerk attended to him. He just needed to know his bank balance. Exasperated and unhappy with the customer service, he walked up to the bank manager's table and announced loudly, "Is this customer service or what?!"

The shock treatment had the desired effect. A hot cup of tea was produced from nowhere and for the next 10 minutes, the bank manager was seen pacifying the upset customer.

(Contributed by Abhay Vaidya, Partha Sarathi Biswas, Chaitraly Deshmukh, Kiran Dahitule and Ajit Balkawade. Compiled by Rahul Chandawarkar)