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CHENNAI: "Caught for not wearing a helmet at a traffic signal, I offered the
constable a 500 note," said a bloke. "And the cop said: 'Give me a hundred.'"

But before the jokes, there was panic. And chaos. Minutes after Prime Minister
Narendra Modi announced that 500 and 1,000 currency notes would cease to be legal
tender from midnight, people queued at ATMs across the city. Many of the machines
ran out of cash within an hour.

In several places, including commercial hubs like T Nagar and Nungambakkam,

police stepped in to control the crowd. "Every time someone withdrew 100 notes, it
sent a ripple along the line. There were heated arguments," said a constable in T
Nagar. "Everyone is making multiple withdrawals of 400," said Saraswathi, waiting
in the queue. The only one unmindful of the PM's bombshell was a penniless man who
had a peaceful sleep under a mosquito net on the pavement.

The Centre's announcement that petrol pumps, hospitals, airports and crematoriums
can accept these currency notes for the next three days came as a relief to many.
To avoid the crowds at ATMs, people rushed to fuel stations, forcing some to shut
down.

Some, who were not aware of the announcement for an hour, were shortchanged,
literally. A few shopkeepers in busy residential areas such as RA Puram said people
came and exchanged their 500 notes for 100. It was credit and debit cards that came
to the aid of many as commercial establishments refused to accept the soon-to-be
redundant notes even before midnight. "500 and 1,000 not accepted here," said a
notice pasted outside a popular restaurant in Guindy.

The smartest ones headed to the state-owned Tasmac liquor stores, which accepted
all denominations. Salesmen at a few outlets who refused to take the notes were
shouted down by their customers to fall in line. "I don't read newspapers or watch
TV. All I have is 500. Give me a quarter bottle and the change," slurred a tippler
at a Tasmac outlet in T Nagar.

Banks stayed sobre, on the back foot. "We are yet to get operative instructions
from RBI," said Karur Vysya Bank CEO K Venkataraman. He said ATMs, on an average,
are loaded with 8lakh to 10 lakh, of which notes of 100 denomination are the first
to run out. "It will be impossible for an ATM slot to dispense 1,000 notes of 100
denomination at one go � because of the size of the slot. Since the cap is at 2,000
and is to be raised to 4,000 we will need to reconfigure systems," he said. Once
the panic settled, parodies took over. Images of 500 and 1000 taking the place of
soiled newspapers to carry greasy snacks went viral.