It is always nice to have “Change”. The change I refer to is the denominations of the currency that one need to carry for shopping, especially in India. Very recently the humble 25 Paisa which had lost practical use long back was declared dead by the Reserve Bank of India. I hope that least count of the denomination would stay with One Rupee Coin at-least for symbolic value if not for practical value.
You would be feel the power of “Change” ,be it in Auto-rickshaw, Bus or Grocery shop .As a consumer, If you don’t have change you would be at the receiving end of the round-off that the vendor resorts to citing lack of change.In auto-rickshaw, the driver has the tendency to round of to the next highest “five rupee”.If the auto meter shows Rs.17 ,he would charge Rs.20 citing lack of change.
In Public Transport buses, it’s a must for you to give the correct change for buying a ticket. Otherwise, the conductor would scribble the amount that he needs t o return in the back of the ticket. Most of the times, you would tend to forget that you need to get back the change. In fortunate instances where you remember to get back the change, the conductor would become unreachable in the crowd. In some cities you would be deported from the bus for arguing with the conductor on the change issue !!!
In Grocery shops, you would be burdened with additional items like a chocolate or coffee powder in a sachet as a round-off .This is a penalty for not carrying the change.
In good old days, you could get change of whatever denomination from the friendly clerk in the Bank. Nowadays, we are at the mercy of the ATMs that may just dispense three Rs.1000 notes for a withdrawal. So it seems as if a conspiracy is occurring to create artificial shortage of change.
The only solution to address the change issue is to collect & carry enough of them even though it may increase your weight by half a kilogram. Collect it as much as you can. The best place to get a change is the Fuel station. The worst place would be the bus where you would be passed on a torn note along with a bunch of good ones. If you are like me, You will not be able to sell this to anyone and ultimately become the orphanage of all the torn notes in the world. In an Ideal world, the Banks are supposed to replace the torn notes. However, the amount of time you would need to spend to do the “plastic surgery” on the torn Note to make it acceptable to the bank makes the entire exercise worthless.
Usually, I would like to propose the solution to the problems. In the case of “change” though, I am out of ideas and looks like it would remain a conundrum to me during my lifetime.
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