India demonetised its high value currency notes on the stroke of midnight 8/9th November. I am in favour of this decision which will have long reaching impact despite short term inconveniences. I had gone out for a long drive on an errand this morning and did see long queues outside many banks. This phenomenon should cease in the next few days.
The grocer from who we buy almost everything needed for the home accepted high denomination notes on the morning of the 9th inst, and has been deducting our daily purchase costs from the credit that we made with those notes.
Ranjan went to our bank across the road to deposit all the high value currency notes that we had at home and had no problems whatsoever in depositing them into his account. The ATM machines unfortunately were empty and he will have to encash cheques for the next couple of days, which is really no big deal.
I am more or less a stay at home type and except to go to movies or to visit some friends or go with them out for a lunch, I rarely go out. I am however in touch with the aam aadmi.
Since our own 9/11,I have discovered that I don’t have to keep large sums of money at home towards the end of the month to pay our help at the end of each month.
This morning, when I was greeted by the Chaiwallah I asked him if he had a bank account and he confirmed that he had and that he has been saving money in it. I asked him whether he has been having any problems with the demonetisation and he confirmed that he had some small problems but he supported the demonetisation decision.
Our housemaid Mangal confirmed that she has an account with a bank and that it will be perfectly alright for us to arrange to deposit her wages directly into her account. she supported the demonetisation decision.
The same thing was conveyed to me by our gardener cum handyman Yakob.
The same thing was conveyed to me by the dog walker Somnath.
Our presswallah is currently away attending a wedding in his village, but I am sure that on his return he too will confirm that he has a bank account and he will have no problems getting his monthly payment directly into his bank account. And I am sure that he too would support the demonetisation.
Having roots as I do in rural India, I am sure that problems there would be minimal as the economy is by and large based on credit and barter. To confirm this, I rang up a cousin in rural India and was pleasantly surprised that the situation remains the same after all these years and also that there was overwhelming support for the demonetisation process in the village and surrounding areas. A fellow alumnus Jayant also confirmed the same in a post on facebook.
My whatsapp groups and facebook friends with the odd naysayer, support the decision and the overwhelming response has been glee at the discomfort of the cash hoarding types, particularly the political class and the bureaucracy with ill gotten lucre, read bribes.
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