Pink is back in fashion. And, it occupies prime space in our wallets.
It’s called the 2000 HD.
It might sound like a camera model, but the Rs. 2,000 High Denomination, born in Mysore and currently in the news all across India, is making an unexpected impact on our lives.
This, even as all our Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes have been retired.
Barely a week after the announcement by the Prime Minister, MetroPlus wielded the ‘pink weapon’ at many places in and around the city to see how far it would go.
Here’s what happened:
Place: Rayar’s Mess
Location: Arundale Street, Mylapore
Trust is the keyword in this as-Mylapore-as-they-come hotel. After all, out of 100 people who come in for their everyday tiffin and coffee fix, 70 are what you’d describe as “regular customers”.
“I don’t need your 2,000, please,” says hotel owner P. Kumar, to a customer who has just finished his evening tiffin consisting of a rava dosai, bonda and coffee. His brother P. Mohan smiles at the customer… “ Apparam pathukalam… nalaiku vaanga ,” he says.
Customers will come again the next day — tiffin at Rayar’s is still a tradition for many Mylaporeans — but brothers Mohan and Kumar are against pressuring them to tender exact change. “Our business runs on trust. We’ve known customers for a long, long time and it’d be unfair on our part to ask them to pay in such times.”
Such times, as Mohan mildly puts it, include many awkward situations in the past week.
“The problem in knowing customers so well — as well as you’d know a family member — is that, sometimes, they’re embarrassed to tell us that they’ve got no change. At times, we understand and tell them, “ Naanga enga porom…aprom kudunga.”
What would a customer, who has a Rs. 2,000 note get at Rayar’s? “He’d get his morning breakfast (Rs. 85, approximately) and evening tiffin (Rs. 75, approximately) for almost 15 days. We serve large portions and you won’t feel hungry soon,” he adds, as he poses with a new pink note.
Place: National Electronics
Location: Wallers Road
At Wallers Road, an integral part of the electronics hub that Ritchie Street is, the question on everybody’s lips is: “ Inga 500 rupee note selluma ?”
I trudge through a narrow lane of electronics shops that’s quieter than usual, and enter National Electronics, a shop for “all mobile phones, CCTV, Spy Cams, i-Pod, Home Theatres & Etc”, according to the description on the business card.
Nazeer Ahmed is peering over the back of a cellphone case when I ask him about business. “It has been dull over the past few days,” he admits, but points out that the price of some electronic goods has gone up. I brandish my new pink note and his eyes light up. “If someone were to give me this and shop for, say, Rs. 1,100, I might not have the change to give back.” In a bid to do better business, Nazeer has taken to hard-selling; he’d ask you to take a memory card or earphones to make your purchase come closer to the magic figure of Rs. 2,000. “Take a Micromax X777 that’s Rs. 1,500, a 16GB memory card worth Rs. 350 and earphones worth Rs. 150…and I’ll take your Rs. 2,000 note,” he says. The deal is sealed.
Place: Big Bazaar
Location: Express Avenue Mall
All I need is a loaf of bread and a mango drink. With the slim Rs. 2,000 note in my wallet, I walk into Big Bazaar in the basement of Express Avenue Mall, not realising that I will have to pay the same amount as the bread and Slice for my parking ticket.
Inside the store, which is usually jam-packed with customers, the working staff seem to be more in number. I see an ATM machine right at the entrance, almost jump towards it with my card, only to be told by an unenthusiastic staff: “No cash.”
I enquire at the billing section if they would have change for Rs. 2,000, and get a vigorous negative nod in return. So, I walk past half-empty aisles and try to calculate in my head what I could buy for Rs. 2,000.
Say, I buy a kilogram each of tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cauliflower, gourds (the total comes to Rs. 110) and add to it expensive Shimla apples, Three Roses tea powder, Horlicks, Nutella, Kellogg’s corn flakes, Amul butter and Britannia cheese (the total inches to Rs. 1,400). I could also probably add a Harpic toilet cleaner, Parachute oil, Pears soap and Pril liquid cleaner, and it would still barely touch the Rs. 2,000 mark.
So, I give up, and walk to the billing section with a loaf of bread in one hand and a bottle of Slice in the other. The bill comes to Rs. 89 (including the carry bag). “We don’t accept old notes,” says the staff in a worried tone as I reach out for my purse.
I hesitantly produce my card, which to my surprise, gets accepted without a fuss. “What if I didn’t have the card?” I ask meekly. “We wouldn’t have billed it,” the staff answers casually. Though cards are accepted only for bills of Rs. 100 or more, the rules have been relaxed, given the current currency crunch.
I walk out feeling a sense of accomplishment, but soon face the next hurdle. Parking ticket: Rs. 60. I hunt for the last 100-rupee note in my purse and hand it over reluctantly.
The cashier looks at me and asks, “Do you have Rs.10 on you?”
Place: Sathyam Cinemas
Location: Royapettah
A.R. Rahman’s chartbuster ‘Thalli Pogathey’ is playing in one of the screens, when I spot a couple of people queuing up for popcorn at the food counters. My Rs. 2,000 note will go a long way here, I think to myself. I can buy tickets for a group of friends (it’s still Rs. 120 if you pay cash over the counter) as well as popcorn for all of them… and they can pay me back later when they get change.
Or… as it turns out I can just buy a ticket and popcorn for myself and still get the change I want here. “We request people to use their card… but if they do not wish to, they could use the new Rs. 2,000 note and get full change, even if they’re buying just a water bottle,” states a theatre official. Even better: they give you the change in denominations of Rs. 100! Clearly a ‘change’ that needs to be taken ‘note’ of.
Place: Ayyanar Stores
Location: Bazaar Road, Mylapore
The dim lights flicker inside Ayyanar Stores as Ayyanar, its owner hands over a bar of soap to a customer. It’s a small transaction, and the customer has the right change on him.
“Things have not been this easy the past week,” says Ayyanar, as I try making my way into his nondescript grocery store, “I’ve been unsure if I should take in Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes because this is a small shop.”
It is; if you stretch your arms out sideways, you might just hit the packets of chips dangling above. “If I allow some people to give me the notes that the Government has banned, others will come by.” I can see why; Ayyanar Stores primarily targets the residential and commercial establishments in the vicinity.
Does he have change to give people who give him the new Rs. 2,000 note?
“ Konjam irukku ,” he says sheepishly, before digging into his pocket and fetching a bunch of new notes.
“I went to the bank this morning,” he quickly adds, “If you give me a Rs. 2,000 note, I’d ask you to buy all your weekly needs and stock up.”
He quickly fishes out an old list of a customer — which adds up to Rs. 1,935. “You should buy all these,” he says, as I scan my eyes through the list that contains oil, atta, salt and ghee, among other things, “After all, you never know what’s going to happen these days.”
(with inputs from Naveena Vijayan)
