Friday, December 30, 2016

December 30, 2016

In the brave new post-demonetization world of cashless transactions and the RBI's clueless/tone-deaf exhortation to citizens to use digital payments to "enhance the experience of living in the digital world", it was ironic that plastic money worked mid-air during travel to/from Andaman, but not on the ground at any of the islands' hotels and restaurants. Guess they are yet to get the memo. Things were so (for want of a better word) cash-and-carryish at one of the places that there is no record (financial or otherwise) that we had even set foot in the premises; everything is settled on the spot that there is nothing to do at checkout time except to wave goodbye to the folks at the hotel reception.

Staying on the subject of Andaman and Nicobar: an excellent holiday destination, a big contrast from the eyesore that is Chennai (apart from the cleanliness, what strikes you is the near-total absence of any political symbols; no party flags, no posters, no mugshots of the local goons adorning cheap flex banners everywhere you turn).