A Note(able) Story !!

Ever wondered what happens to the crisp shiny currency note which you get when you withdraw cash from an ATM ? and what makes it lose the sheen it is born with?? Allow me to spill the beans .........

8 am : A the bunch of crisp notes fresh out of ATM slip into one of white collared salaried person's wallet where they experience their first wrinkling experience . The saheb boards a taxi to get to his workplace. Out of comes one of these notes ( the unluckiest one I would say ) and the saheb pays for the ride. Here the note which is already a two fold becomes a 4 fold as the taxiwaala stuffs the note into his beedi/ciggi/pan/Gutkha/pan masala filled pocket. The "Note" now has to play a forced holi with his new companions and loses all the polish and make up which had been given to him by our Central bank.

10 pm:After the day-long holi-play , the t-driver gives this note to a barmen at a local wine shop and gets his daily dose of "high" feeling. Here our great note first gets to feel the liquor and liquid and tries to wash his holi color with it .But alas the color not only spreads like a spirit but also adds it's own fine touch by concocting a nice color cocktail . Thankfully,before the note is completely soaked with liquor, the wise barmen puts it into the cash Register.

11:30 pm : Time for the bar to close. ( ok this is true only in the Silicon Valley of India. ) . Out comes the note again, now completely red . Note counting and money accounting Time folks.This time it is barmen's saliva which rubs salt to the wound . Add to that our barmen puts a elastic band over our a bunch of notes and even writes something on it. ( You can buy 1o notebooks with me says our friendly note) .

10 am next day : The note is back in the bank to be deposited by the now sober barmen . In comes a Seth asking for hardcash. Out from the teller's salivation and the seth's counting machine , it is now being used by the seth to buy some expensive jewellery from a jeweller. The jeweller says this note is too soiled to be accepted. Sait's says " Bhai lelo na . Agar koi nahi laga to mujhe hee wapas karna , mein kal aayoonga phir" . and so goes our note into the cash register ( again) .

11 am : chai time in the jeweller's shop . bhai 10 cutting chai lana . Chai waala is paid for our by now unrecognizable note. Chai waala says " Saheb nahi chalega yeh note"........ Jeweller says " Bhai lelo. Agar nahi chalega to mein hee le loonga. Roz to chai deto ho" ........ and thus the story continues until one day our note gets dressed (laminated) in plastic. And a typical Gujju businessmen pays for his lunch with the same cliche line " Chalega bhai . Nahi chalega to.................."

PS : To know why I am referring to gujjus here, just visit a pan shop in Ahmedabad.