Our trip to India was a delight – meeting old friends, revisiting old haunts, discovering new ones. And we realised, yet again, that India is a country like no other, and  will always surprise you. As it did the night we heard that the Government was withdrawing, with all of four hours notice, all 500 and 1000 rupee notes, in what Prime Minister Modi called a ‘surgical strike’ against terrorism and corruption.

Immediate reactions included confusion, anger, some admiration for the idea, some doubts as to whether it would work. And a lot of distraction from day to to day work, as everyone tried to work out what it meant for their families and/or their businesses. It was very soon clear that there weren’t enough small denomination notes to replace the withdrawn ones, and that the new high value notes weren’t ready for distribution. People queued for hours at banks and ATMs and often came away empty handed. One young man I know broke his son’s piggy bank. All of us, rich and poor and in between, searched pockets and bags for small notes and coins, (when we got back to Malaysia I found two 10 rupee notes and a 5 in a handbag I hadn’t taken with me. Next time I’ll check).

Now, three weeks later, it still isn’t clear how this move, in an overwhelmingly cash economy, will play out. Queues at banks are still long, though apparently more organised: I’m told by my friend that (at her bank at least) there is now a line for senior citizens, so no waiting, oh and she was given a cup of tea. The programme to manually change all the ATMs in the country (and yes, it is a big number) so that the new 2000 rupees notes can be dispensed is progressing. However many markets in rural areas, where few banking facilities are few and far between, are closed, and there is fear of food shortages. Reports in the papers say many day labourers,  who work in the fields or construction sites, and whose existence is at the best of times precarious, are not getting work because there is no cash to pay them. And at what is normally the height of the marriage season, weddings are being delayed or cancelled because there isn’t sufficient cash to pay the florist, the caterer, the pundit…

Incredible India, as the India Tourist Board campaign used to say. But I think they might have meant something different?