A bold move?

Dear Editor,

Most of India has been standing in queues outside banks to exchange the now useless 1,000 and 500 rupee notes. Despite the frustrations to the population and the cost to the economy many say withdrawing these notes has been a wise move. Your readers may be interested in another opinion, albeit one that requires me to begin with a tale of what for many in India is an everyday situation.

In July I applied for a landline for my home in Bengaluru. Putting in the application required me to go twice to the office of BSNL, the state-owned landline provider. The first time the application was rejected, but the fault was entirely mine as the proof of address I provided had my address wrong – a fact that I had failed to notice, but which the alert BSNL employee immediately spotted. On my next attempt I was able to submit the application and pay a ₹500 (US$7) deposit. I returned with the assurance that my husband and I would get the landline in a week.

A week went by, but we heard nothing and forgot about the application until some weeks later. Then my husband went to the local office of BSNL to ask about it, but could not get an answer. He gave up and left.