With the Rs 1000 notes being scrapped and Rs 500, replaced across the country, Mahatma Gandhi has literally swapped sides on the new notes! As city folk prepare to replace these familiar denominations with the still unfamiliar magenta and stone grey notes, they couldn’t help but react.
Everyone’s first thought was unanimous – Monopoly money or Thai baht? “Besides taking me back to childhood with game-like money, I was wondering why the aesthetics of the notes didn’t get much attention,” says Rini Joseph, a social media manager from the city. While there is a picture of the Red Fort with our flag, the Ashoka Pillar emblem and the portrait of the Father of the Nation on the Rs 500 note, the new Rs 2000 note sees the motif of Mangalayan (Mars Mission) along with the Swachh Bharath slogan. “Instead of randomly picking imagery which hardly sums up our culture, they should have probably paid attention to it representing what India stands for. In that sense, I would say the older notes really kept that in mind. In order for money to be taken seriously, the piece of paper that embodies its value should be unique – almost like a work of art that you wouldn’t throw away, no matter how invaluable the piece of paper is,” she opines.
For Bengaluru standup comic, Ajay Samson, the move is welcome because, in his words, people who have black money are actually losing their sh*t. “But graphic design wise it could have been better. Looks like the choice of colours and patterns were also decided overnight just like the decision of banning the notes! Gandhiji also ‘flipped’, quite literally!” he notes. Some others are thrilled about how it looks. Take Sapna Dube for instance. The apolitical artist from the city whose biggest inspiration is colour took to remaking the Rs 1000 note with a mix of geometry, patterns and a burst of colour.
Prime Minister Modi’s face stands out too. “I think the notes look very international, just like how the Prime Minister is trying to be,” she says. “This move and the opinions surrounding it energised me so much, that it inspired an art work out of it!” she says about the colours that depict her energy rightfully.
