Do you have the change?

It has been a very regular scene these days in Calcutta when people are seen telling the bus conductor that they do not have change. All they have is a hundred rupee note. Many times the conductor does co-operate but recently I witnessed a conductor in an A.C. bus really losing it because every other passenger was giving him hundred rupee notes. He honestly told everyone that he was losing his calm and this is the reason most conductors start abusing instead of telling this frankly to the passengers.

I saw people getting irritated at the conductor, some were getting really pissed and some were even making fun of him and laughing. But standing there, it really struck me that it is actually nobody's fault. Neither the passengers', nor the conductor's. This is a problem that has been prevailing for some time now but is going unnoticed. Rather, the worst part is that the source of the problem is going unnoticed. It can be said that it is one the problems of our globalization, advancement, digitization or whatever you may want to call it.

Has anybody ever given a thought on why people are having mostly hundred rupee notes?

It is all about the hundred and five-hundred rupee notes which come out of the ATM. People do not go to the banks any more, and ask for the different denominations in which they want to withdraw money. People just go to an ATM and get the money in a few clicks without having to interact to unknown people. But very sadly, the ATM machine does not understand our ardent need of the ten and fifty rupee notes.

Then who should understand this?
I think, the banks should.
Isn't it?

The banks need to understand that people need the ten and fifty rupee notes for travelling in buses and auto-rickshaws in their daily lives. The banks should include an option in the ATM machines where people can chose to withdraw change of big notes such as hundred or five-hundred rupees. Rather, people should get the ten rupee notes automatically. At least ten rupee notes for a hundred or two-hundred.

Passengers not having change leads to less or no circulation of the ten or twenty or fifty rupee notes. Then how will the conductors or any other vendor or shop-keeper, for the matter, have change available?

So, if any person from any bank is reading this blog, I would like to request you to take this plea to include notes of the small denominations in the ATM machines and provide the people with the change. Otherwise, that day is not far when the notes of ten-twenty-fifty rupees will go obsolete and the prices of all things will go high up to match the unavailability of change!

And all the other people reading this, please try to understand the roots of this problem and spread the word as much as you can.