After ten days of cash crunch, Amdavadis pick up the threads of life

Ten days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to demonetize the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes,the country is still trying to crawl back to normal life. With little cash in the market, people are trying their best to buy only necessary provisions which is affecting small business owners and vendors among many others. Queues outside banks and ATMs deny to die down considering the fact that India is largely a cash driven economy.AT walks around the city and takes notes of the good, the bad and the ugly side of demonetizaton.
CARDS OR CASH: STILL A BIG ISSUE The cash crunch has affected the overall demand and supply of food items especially fruits and vegetables in the city. Ramik Barot, fruit vendor near Ambawadi says,“I have been trying to sell these fruits since November 8. The biggest problem is that we don’t accept cards which is the easiest mode of payment currently since people don’t have too much cash on hand.” Many small grocery and neighbourhood store owners have also bought the card machine just to make sure their business doesn’t see another low. Raju Gala,a grocery store owner says, “I never felt the need to own a machine since people paid through cash all these years.It is for the first time and after two days of facing trouble that I finally bought a machine.”
NO CHANGE FOR RS 2000 NOTE Street food vendors near CEPT University have hardly seen customers who once used to throng their larries in the evening.“The cash crunch has definitely affected me. Not that people don’t come to eat. They do but we don't have change of `2000 while we are still struggling to get change of Rs 500,” says Ravi Shah who owns a laari. Another vendor, who owns a juice stall, says, “I have earned only `300 today. Thanks to the demonetization.”
LEISURE TAKES BACKSEAT The months of November and December are usually high on concerts, carnivals and parties. As demonetization grips the city, entertain
ment and leisure are not on people's priority list, albeit only temporarily. Rahul Gurnani, who runs an event management company in the city, says, “We had scheduled a standup comedy evening this weekend but the sales are not good.We did not expect to face this problem because the tickets are up for purchase online.” He adds that usually two days prior to the event,the tickets are 80-90 percent sold out. They are considering cancelling the event because evidently, people are too preoccupied with other important matters at the moment. However, these woes are not here to stay. Devanshi Sheth, organizer of a flea market, which is to be held a week from now, feels that things will improve soon.She says,“We will have electronic payment machines at the carnival and we are in talks with higher bank authorities for further support.” She adds that a few exhibitors did have some apprehensions initially but they are assured with the arrangements being made. In the longer run,it will be business as usual. Chirag Bhatt, partner at an event management company which is organizing a live-in concert next month,says that their concerns are short term. “We only sell online and on a daily basis, the ticket sales have dipped about 40 percent. But we are still selling! Demonetization is a big step and there are bound to be problems. But as things settle, people’s attention will go back to entertainment activities and the sales will catch up,”he concludes.
It is still time before the situations gets back to complete normalcy.Right now,it’s wait and watch.
(With inputs from Gopi.Shah@timesgroup.com)