The signature is all in all. Even poets, when they publish new poems often call them ‘New signatures’. And the radio uses a signature tune as its patent or hallmark. But especially do banks honour the signature; certainly they will not honour anything which does not bear a signature; to them the signature is almost omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, supreme! Now, though everyone who draws a cheque knows the importance of the signature to the bank, through bitter experience of cheques coming back which the usual slip if they do not bear the signature, or if the signature is slightly wanky or blurred, there are still two kinds of peoples who have not yet realised the value of the signature. These are respectively some of the feudal gentry who live in ‘Indian India’ or the mofussil or on large estates in the country, and the very poor, who have no bank account to their credit at all. Of course, it may be said in extenuation of the last class of people, that the reason why they dishonour the signature is because they have been left illiterate.
