Kochi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetization has taken the entire nation by storm. The entire nation seems on the road frantically trying to get some cash or deposit their hard earned money in banks.
While the rest of India is either going cashless or getting stuck at endless queues at banks, people of Kerala have found an ingenious way to relax. They let a piece of paper or a small stone do the hard part.
The paper and stones do the standing for them in the queues while they chill out somewhere nearby. So, long lines of these “tokens” point to banks or ATM counters in Kerala while serpentine queues of humans dot the rest of the country.
The trend is obviously spreading through the southern Indian state because people seem to be doing it everywhere.
And everyone who’s heard of it is raving about the clever little fix. Twitter simply couldn’t get enough of it.
Meanwhile, the Keralites that are meant to be standing in a bank line are having idlis or vadas at a nearby chill-station.
However, news from other parts of India is not hilarious.
At least 47 people have died in various parts of India in queues before bank during the eight days after demonetisation was implemented on November 9.
These are confirmed deaths reported in the national media. The number of unreported deaths may be higher. While most deaths are of the elderly waiting in long bank queues, there are quite a few suicides, especially of housewives, reports huffingtonpost.in.
According to the Press Trust of India, a 54-year-old bank employee died at work at Rajgurunagar near Pune in western India. Tukaram Tanpure, a messenger with the State Bank of India’s branch there, died after he collapsed during office hours on November 16.
“Tanpure was working with us as messenger and today afternoon, when he was sitting in one of the cabins of the branch, he collapsed on the floor and became unconscious,” the bank’s branch manager Shridhar Iyer said.
One Ram Chandra Paswan died in a bank queue in Palamu, Jharkhand, according to The Indian Express. Paswan was in a queue for hours.
In Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, Suresh Sonar died of a heart attack after failing to exchange currency notes despite spending hours at the bank. His family said he was distressed as money was needed for his daughter’s marriage ceremony.
In Maharashtra’s Nanded district, Digambar Kasbe, 60, died after collapsing in a bank queue. He had been standing for hours, the Hindustan Times reported.
Lavkush, 20, died in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district because of the economic stress caused by demonetisation. His daily wager father had been unable to get work because of demonetisation. When Lavkush’s grandmother Lakshmi, 70, heard of her grandson’s death, she died of shock.
In Siddipet district of Telangana, Balaiah, a 45-year-old farmer, died after he mixed pesticide in his food. He had been trying to sell his agricultural land but was stressed because its price came down from 600,000 to 700,000 rupees a acre to ₹200,000 to 300,000 rupees after demonetisation. He was under debt. His father also died while his wife and son are battling for life in a hospital.
Saud Ur Rehman, 48, died in a bank queue in old Delhi after waiting for hours. It was his second day of trying to exchange old notes.
Khaliq Hasan, 56, collapsed and died in a bank queue in Bareilly. His family members said he was stressed due to demonetisation. Deepak Shah, 60, died after collapsing in a bank queue in Mumbai.