Going cashless to unearth a ‘hidden cache’

On the morning of November 9, all Australian networks remained totally obsessed with the outcome of the American Presidential elections. Mercifully, for some inexplicable reason, the restaurant of my hotel at Melbourne preferred to display BBC News on its TV. The interview with our commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman was muted. However, the news banner running below proclaimed that India had woken up to a new dawn of a new era of demonetisation.The high end Indian currency in my wallet which was to take care of my cab fare from New Delhi airport plus a day's expenses was no longer legal tender. Nonetheless, being a privileged Indian with both a credit card and ATM card, I felt reassured to cope with my arrival travails.
Less than 48 hours later, on my arrival at Delhi Airport, new obstacles started to surface progressively at each step. No doubt, the form - free and hassle free liberalised immigration and customs checks for Indian citizens were a big relief.
ROUND ONE
i) "No Cash" placards at the Thomas Cook Foreign Exchange counter were the first signs that greeted me immediately on clearing the Customs Check. Undeterred, I headed to an ATM.
ii) The long line at the ATM dashed my hopes of getting currency of lower denomination without an irritating wait. Yet, I pinned my hopes on hiring a taxi from big name cab operators who would have probably graduated on to credit card swiping.
iii) On approaching different cab agencies, I was told that they operated on a 'cash only' basis. Three cab drivers politely declined to take the old 500 rupee notes, pleading that they were already inundated with demonetised notes proffered by hapless commuters during the last 48 hours following demonetisation.
iv) After a twenty-minute wait, hope and succour came in the form of an empathetic driver who agreed to accept my demonetised 500 rupee notes. However, he requested me (again politely) to try procuring smaller currency notes from my folks on reaching home. The taxi fare being only 800 rupees, I thought I would not be asking for the moon from my local Delhi relatives.
v) All my hopes were dashed when I arrived home only to be told by my cousins that they too were sailing in a common boat with banks and ATMs not being able to meet their new currency demands! Since the last two days they had been conserving the bare minimum small currency notes to meet their day to day travel and grocery expenditures. In a place like Delhi, the former would be a tall order!
vi) Understanding my dilemma, my cab driver was magnanimous in accepting my single 500 rupee note. Out of gratitude, I divested myself of whatever small currency I had to reward him with a well deserved tip! It was his magnanimity that bailed me out of impasse at the airport in the wee hours of morning when all financial systems failed. I am sure there would have been many other silent unsung Good Samaritans rising to the occasion to help just arrived visitors like me.
ROUND TWO
The two refreshing rounds of South Indian decoction coffee (savoured after a gap of one month) cleared the cobwebs in my mind, forcing me think to like a prudent financial analyst (for a change). I had to chalk out my survival plans for the next twelve days before I was to cool my heels at home sweet home in Vizag. A week of daily long distance travelling in a sprawling metropolis, followed by a rail journey to Chennai and more rounds of intra-city commute necessitated holding on to wads of hundred rupee notes. Belatedly, I realised the wisdom of Ernst F Schumacher "Small is Beautiful"! It also meant restricting travelling to only on business and eliminating all social visits.
i) I joined the serpentine queue at the local State Bank of India armed with ample reading material and mentally preparing to face the test of the bladder, if required! The crowd had spilled beyond its premises on to the staircase leading to the bank. Except for one restless middle aged man who rudely pushed his way through, the rest of the people were surprisingly patient and well behaved.
Mercifully, it was quite unlike the usual aggressive Delhi behaviour that I encountered standing in queues as a student almost 4 decades back- be it at railway reservation counters, in buses, cinema halls or university offices. In the cheek by jowl crowd, it was also heartening to see that no one misbehaved with ladies. This improvement in the civility of Indians at public places is definitely a factor to feel optimistic about.
ii) After more than two hours of wait we told that the bank had closed for the day at 6 pm (despite staff working two hours beyond their normal closure time.) The waiting crowd took this disappointing news in a philosophical stride. Though terribly let down, people left with hopes of a better tomorrow. Some, like me, went to the adjoining ATMs only to be told that it was accepting only cash deposits but did not have new currency to disburse.
iii) My luck did not improve even the next day. In the late hours of the evening after completing my work, I joined a queue at an ATM of a nationalised bank which did not appear formidably long. I was just two places away when the ATM ran out of cash! Like me, many took in their stride with dollops of fatalistic Indian philosophy!
iii) Following these failed attempts I had no option but to finally accept an earlier offer of help from a compassionate neighbouring banker couple. They volunteered to exchange my notes knowing that I would be running out of both time and money for my programmed work in Delhi. My transport needs were sorted out by my regular cab agency. He volunteered to accept my old notes for hiring his cab. A typical survival tale of "I scratch your back, you scratch mine!"
Delhi could have been the most extreme example of long queues, indicating the mismatch between supply and demand. WhatsApp messages indicated that the situation was slightly better in the south. My personal observation is that the situation was less stressful at Chennai. On arrival at home at Vizag, my short road trips to smaller towns like Srikakulam and Parlakhimidi gave me the impression that, by and large, in the first three weeks of post-demonetisation people bore many inconveniences with stoicism. They hoped that there would be improvements in the system in the long run.
Fortunately, the Bharat Bandh on November 28 went off without large scale disruption of public life. Apprehensions of mayhem on payday and riots have been expressed by courts and intellectuals. Is it still too early to say that we are over the hill? Or, is the Indian public still waiting for the proverbial last straw on the camel's back? Will any flare up at the volatile Indian borders upset the mental equanimity of our common man, who has been displaying the proverbial patience of a Job till now? I am not a professional economist to analyse the short run impact on industrial growth, agricultural sowing operations, transport sector and tourism. They definitely have received hard knocks. Akin to a first time expectant mother undergoing labour pains, should we grin and bear the monetary blues hoping that the end result would be a catharsis of a defective economic system?
Interestingly, we are receiving heartening reports on innovations by young entrepreneurs towards cashless transactions. Maybe the demonetisation has provided us opportunities to put into practice, Tom Peters' ideas in "Thriving on Chaos"!
(The writer is a retired Indian Railways official now involved with rural education. He can be reached at himakartata@gmail.com)