Tale note of the note:सबसे बड़ा रुपैया भइया

पाँच रुपैया बारा आना ...!
TAKE NOTE OF NOTE
By: RAJBIR DESWAL
I remember a few years back that the currency of a note of one-thousand denomination was stopped, or restrained to pass of, as a guarantee from RBI Governor, as a promise to pay to the bearer. People were then seen making kites of the notes and burning them like cigarette, by round-folding and lighting them on one end.
I had been wondering all these years, as to why had not any Indian bank issued directives, or advisories, or even appeals to the currency users to ‘take note of the note’. Now when the plastic currency is in use in many parts of the world, the Reserve Bank of India has appealed to the general public to take adequate care in ‘handling’ of the currency notes . Better late than never!
The ‘kite’ or ‘cigarette’ treatment to a note for which the RBI Governor does not hold a promise to pay any longer, is alright since it gets reduced to a mere ‘papier-mâché’ but what about the crisper thing that gets corrupted, folded, chewed up, eaten away, mutilated and beaten value out of it—is the question. RBI has though issued ‘clean note policy’ and it should be welcomed but some soul searching is also incumbent.
Women folk in our country should share equal blame for making the bills ‘no more noteworthy’ for they have a tendency to hide them closest to their hearts and thus crumple them. Even men are seen round-folding the notes to make them slide in their waist- string seam, which we call a ‘nara’, for safe-keep.
We apply colours to the notes. We write on them—anything from names to mobile phone numbers. We do simple arithmetic of addition and subtraction on the watermark on the note. I know a guy who used to sign the notes to see if they returned to him in the normal course of passing of. Thank God he remained in penury all his life thus saving lot of currency.
To please Goddess Lakshmi, we apply turmeric paste on the notes. We stapple them. Pin them. Sew them. Clip them.Tag them. Punch them to make garlands to welcome (and offer) netas. All the more we keep soiling them with our saliva. We put oil and tilak of vermillion on them as marks of respect. But should it not be good if we spare the currency our largesse and heed the RBI directive for they are the ones who still hold ‘promise to pay’ and despite inflation.
It was during a seminar held by Department of Homeland Security at the American Centre some time back that I came to know about the fact that the dollar bill is not all paper but some fibre cloth is also used in its making. The health of our poor rupee is already as good or bad as other things of the Asian variety. Hence, all hail the RBI’s ‘clean note policy’.