The Rajoria family from Goregaon had painstakingly saved up for the day they would see their daughter decked up in red for her wedding. But, the ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes has left them in the lurch
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The Rajoria family from Goregaon had painstakingly saved up for the day they would see their daughter decked up in red for her wedding. Instead, they are the ones who have turned red with embarrassment after realising that their money is now worthless. They have the cash but no one wants to take it.
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Mohan Rajoria’s sister’s wedding is just two days away, but he has no idea how they will manage to cover the expenses
With just days to go for the November 12 wedding, the Rajorias are no longer sure what they can do to gather enough cash for the expenses. They had withdrawn Rs 2.2 lakh on Tuesday, but within hours, all the money became worthless once PM Modi announced the ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Strapped for cash, the family can’t even consider postponing the ceremony, since they invitations are already out.
Matter of honour
“Now what will we do? Behen ki shaadi hai, izzat ki baat hai na?” said Mohan Rajoria, brother of the bride to be. He added, “My father and I had withdrawn Rs 2.2 lakh and were just returning home after distributing the invitation cards, when we found out about it. I had received some WhatsApp messages stating that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes had been declared invalid, but I assumed it was a hoax. When I saw it on the news, I was shocked.”
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Mohan (24) is a third-year BCom student at Lords College, while his father Rajendra is a supervisor with Mahindra and Mahindra. The Goregaon-based Rajorias are thankful that they at least managed to buy jewellery and clothes for the bride to be, Rashmi. However, they still need to pay several people on the day of the wedding. “We gave advances to the marriage hall, decorator, caterer and few other people, but the balance has to be paid on the wedding day. That is why I had withdrawn R1.8 lakh on Friday and then Rs 40,000 on Tuesday, but all of it was in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Now it is nothing more than bits of paper,” said Rajendra.
What will they do?
Banks will finally open today and issue the new currency notes in exchange for the old ones, but the family will only be able to withdraw Rs 4,000 per day because of a cap set by the government. The family can withdraw another Rs 2,000 from the ATM in a single day, but that is hardly enough to pay for the wedding.
The Rajorias were so worried about the embarrassment that they were unwilling to let their daughter be photographed. “We don’t want to expose her to taunts from the public. The marriage of a daughter is supposed to be a moment of happiness and honour for a family, but because of this problem, it has become a moment of sorrow and shame for us. If a solution doesn’t come up and there is a problem at the wedding, people will say things,” said Rajendra.
The father of the bride tried asking for more time to pay the dues, but the wedding contractors were unwilling because they are short on cash too. “I will deposit all the notes back in my bank account again, and then try to pay by cheque. But not everyone will be willing to accept cheques. I will try to borrow from relatives too, but how much money can they give us when they are facing the same problem?”
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