By Manoj Pande
Somehow, I land up with something botched up as far as money is concerned. More than a year ago, I was stuck with a soiled and mutilated Rs 50 note, hurriedly palmed off to me by a ‘sabziwalla’. Efforts to get it changed took me to several banks which refused. And when I wanted to enter the hallowed portals of the Reserve Bank of India, I was stopped at the gates itself. They do not exchange such small amounts, I was told. Fortunately, a friendly Bank of Baroda branch in Delhi exchanged it in a subsequent effort.
And then I had this 20 dollar note, torn at the ends. At my wits end on how to get it changed, I approached Shailendra Gupta, my school mate and now a US citizen, who was planning to visit India. The noble bearded soul that he is, Shailendra, when I met him in Delhi last winter, promptly took it from me and gave me equivalent rupees in lieu.
No surprise then, that something had to be mucked up in the digital money world too.
Just the other day, there was a problem with the overhead water tank at home. A plumber was needed, and was called, courtesy an App. The job done, Rs 700 had to be paid for the parts replaced. And like most other transactions these days, a QR code was shown by him on his mobile. A name cropped up – ‘Pavan Kumar’ (name changed for confidentiality). “Pavan Kumar?”, I queried. “Yes”, he replied. The UPI payment was made, and as I usually do, recorded the purpose as ‘plumber’. I showed him the transaction was complete and he went away.
Half an hour later, the doorbell rang. It was the plumber again. He said that the payment had not reached ‘Abdul’ (name changed), whose QR code he had shown me. This was not correct as the name that had cropped up on the QR code shown by him was ‘Pavan Kumar’. Obviously, he had shown me some other QR code. As the parts had been replaced and he had come through a trusted App, I made yet another transaction of Rs 700 to the QR code he showed now – ‘Abdul’. He left only after speaking to ‘Abdul’, who confirmed receiving Rs 700 through UPI.
Now began my anxiety. Who on earth was ‘Pavan Kumar’ to whom I had transferred Rs 700 as ‘plumber’? How to contact him? What was his mobile number? All I had was the UPI ID of this gentleman, whoever and wherever he was.
So, the first obvious step I took was to lodge a complaint with the UPI authorities. I promptly got a message that my complaint has been registered and they will get back soon with transaction status. A complaint number was also given for future reference. But my anxiety about ‘Pavan Kumar’ and his identity remained unalleviated.
Discussions with wife revealed that she had purchased some stationary items a few days back from a shop near Hanuman Chowk. And the shop owner’s name was ‘Pavan Kumar’, she had his number too.
I could not believe my luck. I took a screenshot of the transaction and sent it to ‘Pavan Kumar’, requesting to remit the amount back to me. As I received no response for over 3 hours, I rang him up. He said he was very busy with customers and that I should call around 8 p.m.
I called again at 8 p.m. He was very courteous and went through the transactions of the day. He informed me that he had not received any such payment. I told him my predicament. It was then that he revealed that there is another ‘Pavan Kumar’, who runs a popular confectionary shop in the city.
I scrolled through all the transactions that I had made in the past 6 months and found that I had made a payment to some ‘Pavan Kumar’ for ‘confectionary’ in July 2024.
Eureka!!!
But wait. There was no mobile number of this ‘Pavan Kumar’ and there were 4 confectionary shops of the same franchisee in the vicinity of my colony. Enter Google Baba. Search listed all the shops in the city called AAA Bakery with their contact numbers.
Now began the call routine. The first one was some Gupta who was obviously not ‘Pavan Kumar’. The next one too was not him, but he knew that the AAA Bakery shop was owned by ‘Pavan Kumar’. I had closed in on my search, but it was late at night.
Next day, I decided to go directly to the AAA Bakery owned by ‘Pavan Kumar’. I went there and told my issue to the cashier at the counter. I was told to talk to the person standing outside who was none other than THE ‘Pavan Kumar’. I went outside and introduced myself and my problem. PK (Pavan Kumar) saw the screenshot on my mobile and heard me out. Very politely (PK) told me that he will get the transaction checked from his bankers and that I should leave my bank particulars with the cashier at the counter. I did so and left.
Sure enough, I got a few confirmation/ verification calls in the next hour or so. And then the all-important message that an amount of Rs 700 has been credited to my bank account.
My efforts had not been in vain, and my inadvertent UPI adventure had come to a successful finale. Though I am still waiting for the response to my complaint from the UPI authorities.
But who cares now that Lakshmi (Rs. 700) is back in my account – a Happy Diwali for me.
(PS: This is a Dehradun story and both the shops are well known. I really appreciate the courteous manner in which both the PKs (names changed) interacted with me.)
(An ex-Railway officer, Manoj Pande now lives in Dehradun)
