When it was announced on November 9th I had forwarded an infographic to my entire contact list on WhatsApp. That night till I was awake, I spent chatting with friends who responded to that message. Most of them welcomed it as India’s first step to a mirage ‘Acche Din’. Even I felt that finally, our P.M. had acted like a crusader to the Indian economy. However, the message which sparked off suspicion was from a communist lawyer. I went to sleep with the thought that he must have mattresses full of black money and so he is now resolving to hate our crusader like Hugo Chavez was by victimised.

Being a night-owl, when I opened my social networking feeds at 12noon the next day – it struck me. All mediums of news were overflowing with the hindrances this demonetisation had caused. I felt the first pinch when I checked my wallet and found only Rs.240 in the acceptable legal tender. The solutions being 48 hours away I felt frustrated too, but I chose to act as a responsible citizen and not vent my feelings to anyone. By the next day end, I was no longer that judgemental with that lawyer friend of mine. Somewhere my helplessness combined with the empathy for my fellow tax-paying Indians had found its voice in the arguments my ‘learned friend’ had sent me last night.

In the next 72 hours, as more memes & open letters found their way into my consciousness and the Rs.240 dwindled to Rs.20 – I felt the urge to start an online petition on change.org. Finally when my journo friends started revealing the partisan nexus of the ‘Secret Surgical Strike’, I formed my opinion on this issue and decided to not dig any deeper. If the USA had been TRUMP-ed on that very day, as an Indian I could only wait till I got my daily expenses in notes of Rs.100.

In my opinion, this whole attempt of kerbing black money through de-monetisation is not a boon in disguise as some Modi-bhakts or so-called ‘Honest citizens’ are making it out to be. The fraction of black money recovered cannot justify the pain points faced by all humans in the country. Yes, humans not just Indians. It was so rushed that even the Rs.2000 note is not suited to be disbursed by all ATMs in India. The Rs.100 note was promised but not given by banks as they too ran out of supply from the mint. The transport and logistics sector cannot be compensated by not collecting Toll taxes for 2 days or keeping the banks open on a weekend.

With this mismanaged demonetisation, India is thrown into a state of helpless frenzy resulting in more inflation and suffering for the common man in every aspect of daily life. The beneficiaries would be the PSU banks who needed Rs.1.25 lakh crore capital infusion to counteract the current deficit of Rs.6 lakh crore of bad debts to a list of India’s top industrialists. It would help those who political financiers of the current government who gave us free calling & internet until this year end so that all the new revenue is white in 2017.

This time, only coach S6 of Sabarmati Express is not burning – the fire will burn a hole in each and every hardworking Indian’s pocket. However, I could be called a Roman Citizen for changing my opinion on our Crusader aka P.M. within 96 hours of his master-stroke. Thus I chose to wait it out till the dust settles in front of the ATM across the street.