Falling in love forever

Chapter 13

Isai's POV

It's been two days since our marriage. My Amma and sister are bent upon treating my husband as a royal king. Still, he is down to earth and ends up earning more goodie points from them. Saaru keeps on saying embarrassing things about me to him. Funnily, Amma looks at his face for approval for each and every dish she makes. She is also giving me a final crash course on household work and kitchen work. In the night when we resigned to watch TV, Honourable Prime Minister of India was speaking live. He had just announced about demonetization, making Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes as invalid after 12 midnight. It was supposed to be valid in petrol bunk and few other exceptions for two more days. Instead new Rs 2000 notes and Rs 500 notes were rolled out. To add to the sorrow, we were informed that ATMs will not be functioning for two more days. Old notes can be exchanged for new one's from Nov 10th to December 30th. The reason for this sudden move was declared that it would curb fake currency and black money. It was assumed that people will now have to declare all their income and pay proper taxes. Our first reaction was panic.

He asked me, "Kannu, how much do you have in cash as 500's and 1000's?"

I checked my purse and said, "Just two five hundreds. We had spent all the hard cash during our wedding."

"Thank God for that. You can fill petrol with the cash."

"Yeah, how about you Maama?"

"I just spent all the cash in my hand to pay for the accessories for the car. I have few more hundreds only. I thought of withdrawing tomorrow in the morning."

"I too need some money for tomorrow. If they are going to close the ATM's tomorrow we better rush now."

Amma said, "I think I have few 500's and 1000's in the piggy bank. What do we do with it?"

He said, "Athai, let the initial rush get over. After that you can exchange in the bank."

Amma nodded with a worried look. Saaru was busy observing the news debate. Few speakers were appreciating that it was a surgical strike on black money and leftists condemned it as an ill conceived move.

We rushed to the ATMs to find it very crowded. There were many people who were cribbing that ATMs delivered only 500's and 1000's. So to beat the system, many people withdrew only Rs400 per transaction. We too did the same. Since there was a huge queue we did only minimum transactions. On our way there were three ATM's and we withdrew Rs 400 from all the three ATM's.

By the time we returned home it was late in the night. We continued watching News debates for few minutes but then decided to call it a day and doze off. Our minds were fully occupied.

Next morning, I left my Amma's place for our home. He was constantly reading all the different newspapers and websites. He carried a very angry expression in his face. Not even for a second, I believed that this move could bring out all the black money. Because technically black money can be made white and vice versa. If a business man pays his maid with his unaccounted income, it becomes white money in the hands of the maid. If the maid has to pay the same amount as commission to a Government Officer to get some certificate it again becomes a black money. If that officer pays that money as salary for the home tutor of his child, it again gets converted to white money. So how does banning 500's and 1000's going to stop this? Anybody who does these black money transactions will not keep the money sleeping in a vault. Indian real estate runs in black money, mining runs in black money, sand mafia flourishes with black money. What are they going to do about it? Next is the lack of ATMs in villages. Farmers may find it difficult to pay their laborers. Daily wage laborers cannot be paid daily through their bank accounts. Because there are very few banks in rural areas and fewer functioning ATMs.