Originally Posted by
oliver2002
The current drama is bad situation/cluster..., but really... it can't be the end of the world as we know it. Especially for those of us here who 'enjoyed' living in India in the 80s, when you stood in line with no certainty of the outcome for:
- sugar/wheat at the local ration store
- paying fees for simple things at some obscure location/branch of a nationalised bank
- getting a form
- getting a passport
- getting the ECNR stamp in your passport for the next trip abroad
- getting a result at an educational institution
- getting a visa
- getting a postage stamp
etc etc. Or did I have mean parents who made me do all these things myself?
Living there had its own "charm" then, but this situation with demonetization has to do with the "charm" being reduced (even for visitors) in a very short time and making things worse than they were just a couple of months prior. The stuff you encountered in the 80s had been going on more or less for years and not all the product on one sudden change just before you had to endure all of the above that you did in the 80s.
I remember lines to get cooking gas cylinders in the 80s but that wasn't due to a sudden change made by a single Indian in the few weeks or months prior to me seeing those kind of lines too.