Song Sung Blue

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The new rupee note of Rs 50 denomination has made its entry .I walked out of my bank yesterday with some of them in my purse, My first transaction was with the old man repairing umbrellas on the pavement.I had given my umbrella which had come apart in two as I was opening it ,to him earlier . He smiled and said," Yes, yes, I know these are new notes.Have heard about them being issued.This is my first new 50 Rs note, the shopkeeper over there(pointing to the medicine shop across the road) got these two days ago and showed them to us". My next stop was for puffed rice at the local market. As I handed over the note to the women from whom I made my purchases, she looked startled and asked me, "Whats this?".I told her about new notes being issued by the RBI. She asked me,"What is it worth"?...and this is when the realisation hits that there are still so many who are cannot read or write. I explained and gave her the note which she took,(she was a rather mild person) but her friend who was sitting with her was made of sterner stuff. She was not at all taken in by my respectable appearance ."Lets see",she said and started to examine the note. I must say, I too ,at first sight had thought that the note looked like playmoney being more colourful than what we were used to. So I told her,"Why don't you show the other shopkeepers and get your doubts cleared ?" By this time we had gathered a curious crowd around us, they gave their thumbs up as to it not being a fake.The other shopkeepers also vouched about its authenticity. So finally convinced my note was legal tender the friend grinned at me and said , "Don't mind, I had to make sure.""You did right," I replied,"You can never be too careful." As handed over two of these notes to the shopkeeper near my house, (milk and eggs this time )he said, "Good, now I can show these to my wife and son."So, I asked him if he would like some more and he happily exchanged some old notes for the new blue ones. And that my friends ,is my song sung blue