Some are not even that lucky. The current shouting in our street is from the guys rebuilding the drainage channels. The boss hasn’t got any money to pay them. Some are paid daily (around 600rs,) weekly or even monthly. So how are they supposed to manage?
well the shortage of cash is now beginning to affect me.
I jokingly refer to Indian being consistently inconsistent and don’t misunderstand me, I love the people and the place but sometimes it just takes the biscuit! and can be sooooo annoying.
I didn’t have enough money to buy train tickets this morning. So I ended up with a single instead of a return.
I’d also taken the scooter for a service.
Would they accept a card or cheque?
Not at either the Post office or the scooter main dealer. So I go to the nearest Bank (branch of Canara, my personal bank) massive scrum around the bank door. No chance. Next, the five ATMs in the vicinity, all not working. So I get the motorbike out to go to the city and visit the bank branch to cash a cheque for 12,000 Rupees (its around 140 devalued pounds after Biscuit (aka Brexit)). That’s my max allowance now for the week. Then back to the Post Office to get my return ticket. The clerk has my form, from the first trip to the Post Office in front of her, on the desk (its required to show what ticket you want). There are all the details of the return part of the journey on the same form, she uses that form to complete the details into the computer.
“Sorry sir can’t take the details from this form” where it listed all the details of the train, its name, number, our names, ages, address, out and return dates and times, preferred class and berth, starting station, getting on station, getting off station. “You need to complete a new form”.
Its at this point I begin to lose it!
later, back home…..
what next?
Half the money has now gone. I suddenly have the realisation that at this rate we’ll not have enough cash to go on holiday next week. That’s why I bought the bloody train tickets.
half a rant
at the bank I asked for my pass book to be brought up to date but have to call back as recent entries are not in the book, is there are a problem? Sorry sir each update (printing of deposits and withdrawals in the book) can only have twenty entries per day/visit. So I have to go back to the bank tomorrow for another printing session to see the other deposit/withdrawal entries. What!? Really?
Farrell’s dodgy factoid and questioning.
I seriously wonder what would have happened if the UK Govt had unilaterally deleted ALL the five and twenty pound notes in circulation overnight and then severely restricted how many of the replacement notes each person could withdraw so they just didn’t have enough cash! Would we have been so accepting and tolerant?
Yesterday a guest managed to cash 2,000 Rs of old money at my bank and had indelible ink marked on his finger nail so that he couldn’t go to another bank to exchange more. Mad!?
what a day!
Biscuit (aka Brexit) pales into insignificance. UKAOs just seems so small and so less relevant.
India was MODI-fied, over two years ago, with the election of the BJP party to govern India. Today in a country of one billion people Modi announced that OVERNIGHT all large denomination notes (500 and 1000 Rupees) would be abolished, imagine that? In a country with so many people, where the majority have a stash of notes at home and a significantly large minority aren’t known by the tax authorities, operate in an under-the-table-informal economy will now have to take their cash to the bank to get it exchanged. It is intended to tackle counterfeit notes, bribery, corruption, ‘black’ money and add to other polices such as IDs, bank accounts for poor people etc. that together help contribute to formalise society fully onto the ‘radar screen’.
Astonishing! 
There will be much more to come. Banks are closed, ATMs not working. Once they reopen cash can be exchanged up to a maximum of 4000 Rs per day or put into a bank account within the next fifty days! These new notes will be issued in limited quantities from Thursday.
Cash chaos.
But it’s India so somehow it will all work out.
Next, we can now look forward to a President Trump!
There’s an Elephant in the room.
Is this another example of how people in UK and now the US have become so disconnected with the political classes, the establishment power and the orthodoxy they represent? People are angry and are providing a strong message, wanting a different future.
Meanwhile, ‘laid-back’ Manjula relaxes, munching on the Roses Chocs I smuggled in (equivalent of five tubs) from the UK. She gives them out to friends, neighbours and relatives…..
Me and MYCycle 