HANDS-FREE:With no bag to carry, it was a happy hands-free night out for Mary Marks at London Pub. “I have no bag because my card is in my pocket. So hassle-free! From cash, I have moved to using plastic but I escaped visits to the bank as I got friends to exchange the few old notes I had!” said the guest relationship manager who loves partying.

 

CUE FOR (ATM) QUEUE: “My agenda nowadays is to watch out for nothing but ATMs. I often behave like a thief, as I take the remotest lanes which have ATMs to see if they have money or not! Not just that, I wait to see if anyone going inside is coming out with money in hand. I got lucky when I spotted someone withdrawing money, coming out quietly and signalling a friend that money was there!” laughed Saurav Das with friend Madhurima Basak at Roxy.

 

 

GOING DUTCH: Anindita Biswas has cut down on partying. “I party less now and when we go out, it’s usually in a group where the guy friends are sweet enough to pay for the drinks, or we split the amount. The only problem I am facing is shopping online. December being the party season, I am unable to shop online as I prefer COD!” confessed the masters student spotted at Club Boudoir on Shakespeare Sarani.

 

DIGI WALLET:“Due to chaos and confusion, I did face minor problems for a few days. My day-to-day cash transactions were affected since many places refused to accept old notes. Hence, I had to depend on Paytm and borrowed cash from friends,” said Tanisa Mookerjee, a college student, spotted at a music festival.

 

HOME ALONE: Roopsa Chatterjee (right) is in a “social crunch more than money crunch”. “I am not the kind to stand in an ATM queue to withdraw money, so I’m surviving by staying at home and not stepping out much! The funny thing is when the news was declared, I was partying in Goa and initially I thought my dad was joking when he broke the news. Later that night, we used up all our Rs 500 notes on drinks but the next day we had to borrow money from our friends in the group because nobody was accepting the old Rs 1,000 notes,” said the marketing executive at an MNC, with friend Natalia Scen for company at Roxy.

 

PARTY SMARTLY:Jiya Pattanayak believes in the brighter side of things. “Instead of partying back-to-back on Fridays and Saturdays, I feel it’s wiser to go clubbing on Saturdays as you get to hear both EDM and Bolly!” said the lady in red at Black lounge.

 

COD:For DJ Kunal G, the episode has been good and bad. “The best part was that all those who were delaying payments for parties I had worked for cleared their dues. For a change, I didn’t have to chase people! On the downside, many gigs in November and December were called off as most events work totally on cash payment basis. But the funniest was having to wait for hours to deposit my own money in a bank! That was a first,” laughed the DJ, with friend Pritisha Chakraborty at UG Reincarnated.

 

PENNY WISE: The demonetisation has been a learning curve for Neha Dasgupta. “I am a student, so my parents take care of everything. But I am also a freelancer stylist and budding fashion designer, and my payments are getting delayed. Overall, I am finally starting to spend wisely!” said the final-year fashion designing student at NIFT.

 

 

 

NO BIG DEAL:(Right) Nurul Ayan at UG Reincarnated is in peace-out mode. “Most of my transactions are via plastic money, be it for shopping or partying, so it didn’t matter much. The only time I pay by cash is probably when I need to pay for parking,” he said. (Above) Abhilasha, spotted at a music festival, struck the “hashtag” happy pose. “I have always been a card person, so I didn’t feel the pinch. The only time I faced a problem was when I went grocery shopping at the local bazaar,” said the Delhiite.

Pictures: Rashbehari Das and Chanchal Ghosh