I woke up this morning to some loud noises coming from downstairs. It was our gardner, a 70 year-old hard working man, talking to my mom and cursing the great man. Our gardner is hard of hearing and talks rather loudly, so I could hear it all. I will spare you all the details of what he said about our great PM because that's not the point of this post.
His son got married on the 8th, and he hasn't been able to pay the village folks who cooked the dhaam food, played the band, and put up tents etc. He owes 40k to them but has no way to pay them. They, in turn owe money to their staff and shopkeepers from who they arranged the supplies.
The entire fabric of rural India is based on cash. My gardner can't write them a check, assuming he has a bank account and a check book and finds someone to help him write a check, because many of those he owes money to don't have bank accounts. Everyone needs to work on their small farms right now to grow their wheat crop and don't have time to stand in bank queues to open accounts, or deposit checks, and navigate the system- just to withdraw small sums of money everyday.
It is the person at the very bottom of the chain who is most distressed and in pain.
Point to note- I stayed upstairs and did not influence or incite him. I didn't have to. The system is doing that just fine.
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