The Post #Demonetisation ATM Hunt
The word of the year has just been declared by Oxford Dictionaries and the word is 'post-truth'.
And Wikipedia helped me with the meaning of the word, which can be found here.
Simply put, post-truth politics (also called post-factual politics) is a political culture in which debate is framed largely by appeals to emotion disconnected from the details of policy, and by the repeated assertion of talking points to which factual rebuttals are ignored. I guess, you know where this going, by now.
It's been a little more than a week since the D bomb was dropped. There have been debates, name-calling and full-fledged social media battles. And now people are waiting for life to get back to normal. Sad part is, the situation is far from normal. However, there are some people who believe that the ATM situation is back to normal and is working just fine without much of a hitch. And of course there is an emotional twist thrown in as well, wherein your standing in a queue is compared to soldiers giving their life at the border and youngsters giving their lives in Roadies queues.
However, given the scenes I had been seeing over the last week, I thought otherwise. But thinking can be such a waste of time, especially when you can just step out and see for yourself what is happening on the streets. And since I haven't felt the need to go to an ATM since D-day (The 1500 I exchanged last week is almost not touched. Cashless FTW), I really didn't know what was going on at the ATMs, except for the lines outside them.
So I set myself the task to go to an ATM near me and withdraw INR400 (my standard withdrawal amount). I don't really need the cash. However, the idea was to see how much time it took me to get this done, if I actually needed the cash.
So, on my way to office yesterday, I decided to test out the ATM scene in BTM. And the following series of photos is a brief summary of what happened.
First stop : 10:29 AM
State Bank of Travancore (ATM and Branch), BTM 2nd Stage, 7th Main (https://goo.gl/maps/CYLyfTxbdoB2)
Status : ATM closed, since there is no money. Branch is about to open and people are already queuing up. I move on.
Second stop : 10:32 AM
ICICI Bank (ATM and Branch), BTM 2nd Stage, 7th Cross
(https://goo.gl/maps/v7zVtmsTMLG2)
Status : Again, the ATM is closed, since there is no cash. There are Cash Deposit Machines too. But they are shut down as well. The queue of people is snaking already and out on the road. I see a pattern emerging, but decide to soldier on for thoroughness sake.
Third stop : 10:36 AM
Bank of Maharashtra (Only ATM), BTM 2nd Stage, 7th Main (https://goo.gl/maps/RNmiJnvcZcH2)
Status : Well, no surprises here. The ATM is closed.
Fourth stop : 10:39 AM
Axis Bank (Only ATM), BTM 2nd Stage, 7th Main
(https://goo.gl/maps/oPvaa2nDFuQ2)
Status : This ATM breathed it's last on 8th November, the night the announcement came. It hasn't shown any signs of life post that.
Fifth stop : 10:41 AM
ICICI Bank (ATM in the Fresh Store shop), BTM 2nd Stage, 7th Main (https://goo.gl/maps/gLMbyij3A6T2)
Status : As I was moving away from the Axis Bank ATM, I saw a crowd building at the next door store which housed a stand-alone ICICI ATM. The money van had pulled up and a technician and security guard stepped out with an exaggerated show of purpose. People nearby gathered like flies and within second, there was a queue. (This demonetisation thing, really, has taught us a thing or two about queues). Elated to have almost succeeded in my quest, I decided to join the queue.
A couple of minutes of tinkering later, the technician shook his head, closed up the ATM machine and started moving away. The manner in which queries from by-standers were ignored, would have given Sonam Gupta an inferiority complex. Dejected, I decided to try my luck else where.
App Check : Walnut
But before moving on, I decided to test the Walnut app, to see if it was reflecting this sad state of affairs.
Walnut is a expense tracking tool which recently introduced a feature by which you can check if there are any #ATMwithCash near you on a real time map.
It reads SMSes to keep track of your transaction SMSes and therefore has access to SMSes sent by banks for ATM transactions. Analysing SMSes from all its users, it comes up with a classification of ATMs as green (active) , orange (was last active recently) or grey (not active currently). It also gives you an approximate queue estimation.
Link to app : http://www.getwalnut.com/
And as expected, the Walnut map was almost completely painted with shades of grey! And with that the first part of my ATM hunt drew to an end. Any more hunting would have ensured that I would be late to office.
In the evening, on my way back home, I decided to check out if things had changed.
Sixth stop : 06:25 PM
HDFC (Branch and ATM), BTM 2nd Stage, Near Silk Board
(https://goo.gl/maps/45ueVyqMcMt)
Status : The ATM has cash now. However, there is a long line of around 25-30 people waiting for cash. Approximate wait time would be around an hour.
Seventh stop : 06:30 PM
Axis Bank (ATM), BTM 2nd Stage, 24 Main, 7 Cross
(https://goo.gl/maps/2pYUeX71H812)
Status : Another Axis ATM which I haven't seen operational since the announcement.
Eighth stop : 06:35 PM
State Bank of Travancore (ATM and Branch), BTM 2nd Stage, 7th Main
(https://goo.gl/maps/CYLyfTxbdoB2)
Status : Back to where it all began, and now the ATM is functional. And like every evening, today again there is a long queue going down the road and some more (around 40 people)
Approximate wait time of around 70 - 80 minutes.
With that I decided to call it a day and decide to go home, happy in the realisation that I wouldn't be wasting time standing in queues, just because I can afford not to be dependent on cash for my purchases. By the way, total spends for the day (again thanks to Walnut) was approximately INR 600, which included groceries (credit card) and lunch (which was paid by card and shared among office friends thru UPI and paytm). More on UPI later.
Would everyone be so lucky? Going by the queues outside the ATMs, I guess no!
But then, if they don't have bread, let them eat cake!
Next up, would be seeing how the experience of withdrawing money from the branch would be.
And Wikipedia helped me with the meaning of the word, which can be found here.
Simply put, post-truth politics (also called post-factual politics) is a political culture in which debate is framed largely by appeals to emotion disconnected from the details of policy, and by the repeated assertion of talking points to which factual rebuttals are ignored. I guess, you know where this going, by now.
It's been a little more than a week since the D bomb was dropped. There have been debates, name-calling and full-fledged social media battles. And now people are waiting for life to get back to normal. Sad part is, the situation is far from normal. However, there are some people who believe that the ATM situation is back to normal and is working just fine without much of a hitch. And of course there is an emotional twist thrown in as well, wherein your standing in a queue is compared to soldiers giving their life at the border and youngsters giving their lives in Roadies queues.
However, given the scenes I had been seeing over the last week, I thought otherwise. But thinking can be such a waste of time, especially when you can just step out and see for yourself what is happening on the streets. And since I haven't felt the need to go to an ATM since D-day (The 1500 I exchanged last week is almost not touched. Cashless FTW), I really didn't know what was going on at the ATMs, except for the lines outside them.
So I set myself the task to go to an ATM near me and withdraw INR400 (my standard withdrawal amount). I don't really need the cash. However, the idea was to see how much time it took me to get this done, if I actually needed the cash.
So, on my way to office yesterday, I decided to test out the ATM scene in BTM. And the following series of photos is a brief summary of what happened.
First stop : 10:29 AM
State Bank of Travancore (ATM and Branch), BTM 2nd Stage, 7th Main (https://goo.gl/maps/CYLyfTxbdoB2)
Status : ATM closed, since there is no money. Branch is about to open and people are already queuing up. I move on.
Second stop : 10:32 AM
ICICI Bank (ATM and Branch), BTM 2nd Stage, 7th Cross
(https://goo.gl/maps/v7zVtmsTMLG2)
Status : Again, the ATM is closed, since there is no cash. There are Cash Deposit Machines too. But they are shut down as well. The queue of people is snaking already and out on the road. I see a pattern emerging, but decide to soldier on for thoroughness sake.
Third stop : 10:36 AM
Bank of Maharashtra (Only ATM), BTM 2nd Stage, 7th Main (https://goo.gl/maps/RNmiJnvcZcH2)
Status : Well, no surprises here. The ATM is closed.
Fourth stop : 10:39 AM
Axis Bank (Only ATM), BTM 2nd Stage, 7th Main
(https://goo.gl/maps/oPvaa2nDFuQ2)
Status : This ATM breathed it's last on 8th November, the night the announcement came. It hasn't shown any signs of life post that.
Fifth stop : 10:41 AM
ICICI Bank (ATM in the Fresh Store shop), BTM 2nd Stage, 7th Main (https://goo.gl/maps/gLMbyij3A6T2)
Status : As I was moving away from the Axis Bank ATM, I saw a crowd building at the next door store which housed a stand-alone ICICI ATM. The money van had pulled up and a technician and security guard stepped out with an exaggerated show of purpose. People nearby gathered like flies and within second, there was a queue. (This demonetisation thing, really, has taught us a thing or two about queues). Elated to have almost succeeded in my quest, I decided to join the queue.
A couple of minutes of tinkering later, the technician shook his head, closed up the ATM machine and started moving away. The manner in which queries from by-standers were ignored, would have given Sonam Gupta an inferiority complex. Dejected, I decided to try my luck else where.
App Check : Walnut
But before moving on, I decided to test the Walnut app, to see if it was reflecting this sad state of affairs.
Walnut is a expense tracking tool which recently introduced a feature by which you can check if there are any #ATMwithCash near you on a real time map.
It reads SMSes to keep track of your transaction SMSes and therefore has access to SMSes sent by banks for ATM transactions. Analysing SMSes from all its users, it comes up with a classification of ATMs as green (active) , orange (was last active recently) or grey (not active currently). It also gives you an approximate queue estimation.
Link to app : http://www.getwalnut.com/
And as expected, the Walnut map was almost completely painted with shades of grey! And with that the first part of my ATM hunt drew to an end. Any more hunting would have ensured that I would be late to office.
In the evening, on my way back home, I decided to check out if things had changed.
Sixth stop : 06:25 PM
HDFC (Branch and ATM), BTM 2nd Stage, Near Silk Board
(https://goo.gl/maps/45ueVyqMcMt)
Status : The ATM has cash now. However, there is a long line of around 25-30 people waiting for cash. Approximate wait time would be around an hour.
Seventh stop : 06:30 PM
Axis Bank (ATM), BTM 2nd Stage, 24 Main, 7 Cross
(https://goo.gl/maps/2pYUeX71H812)
Status : Another Axis ATM which I haven't seen operational since the announcement.
Eighth stop : 06:35 PM
State Bank of Travancore (ATM and Branch), BTM 2nd Stage, 7th Main
(https://goo.gl/maps/CYLyfTxbdoB2)
Status : Back to where it all began, and now the ATM is functional. And like every evening, today again there is a long queue going down the road and some more (around 40 people)
Approximate wait time of around 70 - 80 minutes.
With that I decided to call it a day and decide to go home, happy in the realisation that I wouldn't be wasting time standing in queues, just because I can afford not to be dependent on cash for my purchases. By the way, total spends for the day (again thanks to Walnut) was approximately INR 600, which included groceries (credit card) and lunch (which was paid by card and shared among office friends thru UPI and paytm). More on UPI later.
Would everyone be so lucky? Going by the queues outside the ATMs, I guess no!
But then, if they don't have bread, let them eat cake!
Next up, would be seeing how the experience of withdrawing money from the branch would be.
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