TANMAY SWAIN, 28, is pursuing his PhD at Utkal University. The young man, who holds an account with State Bank of India, Vani Vihar branch, spoke to The Telegraph about the joy of getting his hands on a new and crisp Rs 2,000 note and his views on the PM's move.

Getting a newly launched currency note of Rs 2,000 was reason enough to celebrate for those who turned up at the bank here on Thursday. As soon as the bank started dispensing cash, people began to cheer and held the crisp new notes up in the air for all to see.

Those who received the Rs 2,000 notes looked as happy as Punch. However, their initial euphoria soon turned into apprehension as they realised that the new notes would be not work in small transactions. I know the notes cannot be used for at least a week or as long as it takes for the new currency notes to penetrate the market properly. But, I can now tell my friends and family members that I have got my hands on the new notes on the launch day.

I waited in line for at least one hour before I could exchange Rs 4,000 and another hour to withdraw Rs 10,000 from the bank. But, the wait was worth it. I exchanged the Rs 100 notes with my friends who said the new Rs 2,000 would be worthless for at least a few days.

The bank staff and the manager were very cooperative and addressed the problems of the customers individually. Many had queries as they had to fill up a form to exchange money over the counter.

The bank manager accepted our request to earmark a counter exclusively for university students. We had to show our university identity cards to exchange the currency notes. Students have considerably less cash with them and thanks to the cooperation of the bank staff we were able to get our notes exchanged without any hassle.

The wait, however, seemed endless. I was fortunate to have wrapped up my work in a couple of hours. Some of my friends and even our professors had to wait for more than two hours to withdraw money. The process would have been streamlined had the banks deployed more personnel to complete this Herculean task. I have never seen such a rush at this bank before.

The move to demonetise will be a great leveller. Since there is a limit to the amount that can be exchanged or withdrawn, the rich and the poor came together and stood in queues to wait for their turn. The move will help tackle the menace of black money. Things will be tough for those with illegal money. It will discourage corrupt practices that has hit the country's economy since Independence.