Rahul - the young Gandhi in Bank of India's Vile Parle (W) branch in Mumbai

Report by : Vinod C. Dixit,

It was a memorable in the history of Bank of India Vile Parle (W) Branch in Mumbai when Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi halted there for about 15 minutes on 5th February 2010. Report says Rahul Gandhi intermingled with the staff and customers of Vile Parle (W) branch. He masqueraded for photographs and also signed autographs for them. All transactions at the Bank of India's Vile Parle west branch stopped for a while but there was no complaint from customers.

Rahul Gandhi is really attractive personality what Bank of India's employees felt. . He comes across as a very charming and down-to-earth human being. He has a great personality and after all he belongs to the most prominent political party in the country. Rahul Gandhi, who was escorted by a few bodyguards, interacted freely with the bank employees, shakes hands with them and enquired about their work.

BOI employee Satish Kumta narrated that Rahul sought permission before entering the branch. He also went to branch Manager Shri G. C. Narang's Cabin and signed the visitor book.

A private security guard at the bank's ATM, Avinash Mahajan said that first Rahul Gandhi moved towards ATM along with another person. At that time Mahajan thought the twosome were customers and might have to use the ATM so he opened the ATM's door but was astonished to see Gandhi stopped and introduced himself instead of going to the machine.

Staff employee Aruna said that "Gandhi is a very straight-thinking person. He was moving in the Bank very contentedly and gave a thought to everyone. He is very kind & simple person. We had a brief conversation during which he enquired about the number of people working in the branch."

BOI officer Yogini Hasabni's yearning of speaking with Congress president Sonia Gandhi came true when she asked Rahul Gandhi to transmit her regards to his mother since she had high regards t for the 'iron lady'. "He asked me, 'Do you want to talk to her?' I said yes, and he made a phone call but unfortunately, the call did not get connected," she said. "It still hasn't sunk in," she said.