Change is here! Is it a welcome change, we are yet to find out? But as inconvenient as it seems, change has entered our households. Narendra Modi has taken a leap in his “Swacch Bharat” abhiyaan and has taken the upheaval task of “cleaning” out the black money from India. Quite literally the new Rs. 2000 notes have it printed. On a Tuesday night when the working class gets home, he announced that India would not be able to transact using Rs. 1000 and Rs.500 currency notes after midnight. He announced that the following day ATMs, as well as Banks, will not be open for business.
I remember what I was doing.
Day Zero: The one with a frenzy and serpentine queues
I was buying vegetables when a friend called to give me the big news and it was followed up with proof. I received back to back screen grabs of news bulletins on several What’s App groups. I only had Rs. 500 in my wallet hence decided against buying vegetables then and informed the same to the vendor. She very confidently asked me to shut up and not spread rumours and ruin her business. She handed me the vegetables, and I gave her my Rs. 500 note. The veggies were worth Rs. 200 hence, I got Rs. 300 back as change. These 3 hundred rupee notes, I realised only later, were what helped me to get through the next four days without standing in the long serpentine queues at ATMs and banks.
After buying groceries and vegetables, I drove to a medical store to purchase a shampoo bottle. As I parked my car and walked towards the shop, I saw five people queuing in front of it. There was a lady up front with 5 thousand rupees notes in her hand calling item after item in her sight.
“Hand me five sanitizers, four cornflakes as well. How much is the bill now?”
The vendor replied in a hurry, “4200”. “Here is your change”, he said handing over Rs. 500 and 3 hundred rupees’ notes.”
“Oho, don’t you know these notes are banned from tomorrow. Help me buy more so that it is Rs. 5000 exactly. Make that seven sanitizers and seven cornflakes. And yes, please check the expiry, else you’ll dupe me there.”
“Here ma’am, Next.” She looked like an educated lady. However, all she was concerned about was getting rid of the money which will be pieces of paper the next day. People went crazy in spite of it being explicitly mentioned that these notes could be exchanged or deposited in the banks till 30th December. On my way back the fuel pump close to where I live, that has hardly one car an hour filling up was full. The queue of cars was endless on the narrow road. I heard people were mobbing jewellery shops to buy golds, silvers and diamonds in exchange for the money they had stacked up at homes. All this, on day zero of the big announcement.
Week 2: The one with business opportunities and suspicion
A friend narrated, their office peon was missing for an entire week and was not reachable on his mobile. When he resumed the next week, he mentioned that he had landed a job to go to banks and exchange notes, earning 500 – 1000 per day. His target was an average ten transactions in a day. He returned to work the following week, as banks started using indelible ink to ensure people don’t exchange money more than once a day.
My office colleague had an amusing incident to narrate; a lady exchanged her 1000, 500 denomination notes for Rs. 2000 from one bank. She was suspicious and fearing that the Rs. 2000 notes looked fake tried depositing them in her bank account in another bank. But her bank refused to deposit Rs. 2000 notes as their software did not support the deposit of Rs. 2000 notes then.
Last week another friend had a house party scheduled, and she asked her brother to get alcohol from the wine shop. The guy had about four Rs. 2000 notes that he exchanged two days before the party. As he was entering the wine shop, he could see from a distance people crowding the store. After he was close, he figured that the credit card swiping machine was not responding.
He happily announced, “I have CASH.” The shop owner quickly responded, “Please let him come up front.” “What do you need, Sir?”
He cut the queue at a wine shop because he was the only one with cash, who would have thought! No, he is not the one who photocopied Rs. 2000 at Thiruvannamalai for buying booze. 🙂
Week 3: The one with the daily ails
There is a shortage of cash. E-commerce companies have stopped cash on delivery as a payment option. Farmers are suffering as they are sowing their winter crop. Another sector paralysed is the transportation sector where 80% of the business done, is in cash. Hence, the withdrawal limits are relaxed, but the banks have no money to give away.
Ex- PM Manmohan Singh has called this move “an organised loot and legalised plunder.” He has estimated that the GDP of the country will decline by about 2 percent by what is done.
There are supporters, and there are haters, but all of us have one thing in common that we are Indians. If someone is trying to better our nation, we must co-operate and give it time before criticising every step of the way. Having criticised the design myself, I am happy to be alive in the times where we have #PINK currency now. 🙂
Bespectacled View 