‘All Time Money’ – the most commonly used abbreviation for ATM seems to have become way too popular among Indians. And maybe that’s why they love to spend all their time inside the ATM booths, staring at the machine or at times the currency notes that they withdraw. Sheer non-sense it is! It gets even more annoying when some people fail to realize that ATM machines, apparently meant for public convenience, is not their private property in any given scenario.

The other day while I waited outside the ATM booth, I saw a 20 something girl teaching her mom how to withdraw money from the machine. OMG! She took nearly 15 minutes to complete her task and didn’t bother to pay heed that the queue was getting only longer outside. Only when I lost my cool and was forced to get inside to remind her that she needs to vacate the machine for others to use.

Besides, there are several other basic etiquettes while using ATM machines, which people don’t adhere to, whatsoever. Every now and then you would see people making multiple transactions or checking their balance repeatedly. At times, I feel like telling them that just by merely looking at their account balance is not going to increase it anyhow. Alas! They show no sign of embarrassment even if you point out to them blatantly that their presence inside the ATM booth for more than required time is highly irritating for others. I only wish that there could be a mechanism whereby if a person sticks to the ATM machine for long, the alarm rings and they get a clue that it’s time to leave…