Notes

Last weekend I went to the bank to draw some cash. I was waiting at the cash counter and watching the various activities around. There was a young couple, pleasant looking and chirpy waiting to talk to the manager. Perhaps they were there to take a house loan I thought. And there was an old lady from the lower middle class background. The pallu of her faded parrot green saree fell loosely on her shoulder across a worn-out red blouse. Her curly hair had shades of white and grey and her dark face was beginning to show wrinkles. She was there with her young son who was probably in his early twenties. Maybe they were there for a loan. I looked around a little more. There were a few people waiting for their turn to access the locker.

My gaze fell on the cashier. Someone had deposited a huge sum of cash. The cashier had placed the bundles of 1000s, 500s, 100s and 50s on his table. He was sitting in a glass enclosed cabin and his complete concentration was on the cash at hand. He rebuked the peon who peeked in once or twice with some question that the peon had. His alert, all enveloping demeanor told all of us standing on the other side of the counter that he was not to be disturbed. He took each bundle, straightened the notes and tediously counted each bundle. I looked at the 1000, 500, 100, 50 bundles and looked back at the over protective stance of the cashier. I couldn’t stop myself from thinking ‘bundles of notes - paper after all - each with a different design and each of a different size.’

That evening, I was sitting and reading a book. My wallet was lying on the coffee table. My daughter as usual was running around. She squealed in glee as she spotted my wallet. She ran to the wallet and started exploring it. To her surprise she found multiple cards of her interest. A few cards even had her mummy's picture on it. "Mummy!!!" she cried in delight as she spotted me on the host of various identity cards. Then her gaze turned to the main portion of the wallet. She spotted the 100, 20 and ten rupee notes. She pulled each one of them out and squealed as she threw them up in the air. I smiled as I saw her rejoice.

She then kept the wallet aside as a ten rupee note fascinated her. She played with the yellow orange colour note for some time. She turned it and twisted it and finally held it high with both her hands. Her eyes were all bright and her face was lit up. Just as I was watching her, she held the note tight on both the ends, tore the note apart into two pieces and giggled merrily as she played with the two pieces.

I did not know what to say.

It took me a few seconds to recover. When I did, I couldn’t help thinking with a smile ‘Notes - pieces of paper after all’.