Tuesday, December 9, 2008

BANK BLOOPER

The spouse and I went to the bank a few days back to put some money in a fixed deposit. The lady at the counter graciously helped us out with the forms, and then gave us a photocopy of the different rates of interest for fixed deposits.

The chart mentioned the rates for the different TENORS. The spouse and I exchanged bewildered glances (isn’t ‘tenor’ a musical term referring to a high-pitched male voice?), before comprehension (and amusement) dawned. Ah, TENURE! The interest rates were given for different terms/periods of fixed deposits.

Being English Literature students once-upon-a-time, we pounced upon the MALAPROPISM with glee and giggles. Surely unexpected from a posh private bank with an all-India network, where, presumably, the photocopied rate-chart was being circulated all over India?

Or maybe, was it a clever musical symbol for the recent rise-and-fall of various economic indices, including interest rates? Maybe someone at HDFC Bank conceals a musician’s soul under the bland banker’s façade?

12 comments:

Nancy said...

Or maybe you get a special deal if you sing?

rajk said...

Good one! I'm someone who loves spotting typos and grammatical errors all the time! So did you point it out to the bank at all?

Deepa said...

Goo one! I liked Nancy's comment too! Wish it were possible!

. said...

nitpickers

Ekta said...

hahah
well for u english literature students...in that case HK will be a heaven!!
They dont just kill english...they murder it ruthlessly and earlier I used to be aghast...now I just laugh...
I saw a sign here once that said..."open 25 hours of the day"....i am still to get over it

Sayani said...

he he thats a funny one for sure !!!
i sometime see rastaurant tho'

amusing one? I think bank are so pressurized (financial threat in form of terror or share or bankruptcy)
they are nt getting much time to review :)

Jaquanda Rae said...

Lovely post Sukki. Many a time, I read signs, newspapers, student scripts etc with some real interesting malapropisms and/or various other errors.

I am happy that my last post made you feel better. I really wanted that HP lap top but here I am typing with my through thick and thin one. The lessons of life.

Ugich Konitari said...

I have a secret admiration for those that advertise/publicise etc with whatever their concept of a spelling is, and still manage to convey whatever they intended to convey......(and I went through school where Mrs D'Souza used to make us do pages and pages of spellings that we messed up in the dictation class. )

lopa said...

In bangalore there is a small cloth dying shop.they put up a sign with an arrow "you can die here".I love bloopers!

pradipwritenow said...

In our profession tenor means the metal content of the rock which is the assay value expresed in the unit of percentages. Say 1% tenor of copper means if you give 100 ton of that rock it gives you 1 ton copper metal. Did they want to mean something.
Thank for your coments on my recent blog The unsucessful Plot

Sucharita Sarkar said...

Hi Nancy,

Wouldn't that be a neat deal?

Hi Rakj, scatterbrain, Suranga, sayani, ekta, lopa,

bloopers sure have entertainment value, don't they?

Hi Sarbjit,

Knit-peakers? Not me, i just laugh and move on.

Hi Jaquanda,

A laptop would be a boon to me, too.

Hi Pradip,

Thanks for teaching me a new meaning of tenor. I really appreciate the detailed way, with example, that you used to explain it. Thanks.

Neelakshi Kotnis said...

:) This reminds me of one jewellery shop near my house ...carrying a nameplate which said: 'Manjunath Jewellers'- Pure 22 carrot gold.
Priceless!