BULLETS, INSURANCE AND A WIDOW

I joined LIC in 1983 and retired in 2018. In between, it has been a long, rewarding, eventful fascinating and enriching journey of 34 years.

From among a myriad of events that have occurred during these 34 years, a few will remain etched in my heart and memory forever.

The foremost among one such incident happened 15 years ago. It was one of those run-of-the-mill working days on 23.3.2004 at a LIC  Branch where I was working as Assistant Branch Manager. Since it was the end of the financial year, the office was bustling with activity. There was a shortfall in performances to be made up, budget to be completed, administrative and marketing parameters to be achieved and a host of other functions to be executed urgently. Each and every individual in the office was neck-deep in work. This is the time of the year when there is very heavy cash flow in all the offices of LIC throughout the country. Our Branch was no exception. Around 40 lacs had been collected the previous day(which was quite an amount at that time). This money had to be deposited safely in the bank as quickly as possible the next day. And it was my job, in the capacity of Assistant Branch Manager, to oversee this process.

In those days there was no cash pick-up facility extended by the banks to LIC branches. We had to physically carry the cash and deposit it at the bank. Our team consisted of a peon who carried the cash box, a security guard, and a supervisory officer. On that fateful day, I was the on-duty accompanying officer. We set out on foot to deposit the cash in the bank which was situated just opposite to the main gate of our branch. The security guard was leading, with the peon in the middle, while I brought up the rear. Just as we were about to enter the bank there was a big explosion followed by gunshots.  Instinctively I dived to the ground and lay still. In that split second before I  realized what was happening, out of the corner of my eyes I saw two masked persons sitting on a bike and shooting at us! At the same time, I saw the guard and the peon scampering into the bank with the cash box at breakneck speed. Dismayed at losing the chance of looting the cash, the dacoits trained their guns on me and were about to fire when there was a commotion behind them from the crowd which had swelled by then. The dacoits lobbed a bomb to scare the people and fled on their bike.

The incident had hardly lasted twenty seconds. But for me, it will last through my lifetime. During those twenty seconds, bombs had been hurled, BULLETS  had been fired, and I had stared at death in the face. It was providence and godly intervention that saved me that day. However, I died a thousand deaths then, and I still die a thousand deaths now just thinking about that horrific incident. A takeaway from this close brush with death was a many-fold increase in my perception of the value and importance of life.

Another incident which augmented, for me, the meaning of Life, and the meaning of Life Insurance, in particular, took place in the year 1984.

I was a fresher in LIC at that time. I had been entrusted with the task of helping an agent who was finding it difficult to sell LIC policies to people of a small village of hundred households, situated in the outskirts of the town. I requisitioned a Publicity Van from our Divisional Office to screen, short and motivational, life insurance related films at the village. Prior to that, we held a meeting at the center of the village explaining the benefits of taking a policy to an inquisitive crowd of around seventy people. The program ended with a big community feast. Needless to say, the campaign was a big hit and we could very effectively convince the village about the need for taking life insurance.

The fact that the agent was a local of the village gave us a huge advantage. He was a known face and people trusted him. As a result, we got easy access to people’s homes and families. Leveraging this favorable situation, I took him along with me to individual households for customized selling of policies. At the end of the campaign, we had sold one hundred fifty policies to forty households. However, getting full payment of premiums from them proved to be difficult. They cited financial constraints and paid the premium partly, but promised to pay the remaining portion in the next month. Only a few paid the premium in full.

Among those who paid in full was an individual named Ram. He was the poorest person in the village. He was a tiller who tilled the land for a landowner to make a living. Every day in the morning he used to take his bullocks and go to work on the landowner’s land adjacent to the National Highway. He was just about able to make the ends meet. Despite being in dire financial straits, surprisingly, he was the first person to pay the premium in full. So this was the first policy we could complete from the campaign. As a mark of appreciation, I personally went to his house to hand over the policy document to his wife who, while respectfully receiving it, was a bit skeptical about the need for (as she put it) “ this plain simple paper”. Ram immediately interjected,  “ Usha, this plain simple paper will look after you and our son should anything happen to me”.  “Don’t utter such evil things! “ said Usha angrily, and walked off in a huff.

A few days after this, came the tragic and heart-wrenching news that Ram and his bullocks had been run over by a truck and had died on the spot while crossing the National Highway to go to work on the landowners land. A pall of gloom descended on the entire village which had become benumbed with grief and shock. However, all rallied around Ram’s family so that they could tide over this extremely difficult and sad period.

In the meanwhile, I instructed the agent to get the policy bond from Ram’s widow which he immediately did. The claim was processed promptly and within a few days, the claim cheque was ready. I went to Ram’s house to hand it over to his widow. Upon seeing me she started weeping uncontrollably and was inconsolable. After the situation normalized a bit, I handed over the cheque to her with strict instructions to the agent to get it deposited in her account at the earliest. The claim amount paid was ten thousand rupees which were a princely sum in 1984 even more so for a poor widow who had never before seen one thousand rupees at a time in her life. Ram’s widow also received another ten thousand rupees by way of Double Accident Benefit. Ram had paid just a quarterly premium of one hundred fifty rupees for the total amount of twenty thousand rupees that his widow received. This was the magic of Life Insurance!

As news about the payment spread, all the villagers who had previously paid a part premium during the campaign, rushed in now to pay the balance amount and complete their policies. This apart, the left out sixty households which had earlier refused to take policies lined up desperately to sign on the dotted lines!

With the money she received, Ram’s widow repaired her house, paid off Ram’s debts, gave her son a good education ( he has become an established farmer now), took LIC policies in her and her son’s name, got her son married,  and is now living a full life with her grandchildren on her knees. She has kept in touch with me and my family over the last thirty-five years. Every year she, unfailingly, makes it a point to send the first produce from her son’s farm to me wherever I am.

She has ceased to be Ram’s widow. She has become ‘Usha Sister’ for me and my family.