Money Stinks!

The smell of money! Glamorized, coveted and sought after by all from beggar to CEO it has been said to make the world go around, and most certainly our economies. As I am paid in cash for my small stipend, I walked into the office to sign and collect only to face a large bundle of cash on the table. The manager perhaps recognizing my surprise informed that while the overall amount not sizeable, the bank was out of bigger bills and the smaller bills amounted to a large stack, belying the real amount. At this moment I felt more like a gangster from Mumbai getting money for a ‘job’, and not being paid for a professional endeavor. Perhaps with this in mind I took a haphazard seat and asked the manager in broken Hindi what was the job I had to do, which made him laugh.

The Indian rupee is quite the currency. The bills are in Rs 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000. Each banknote has its amount written in 17 languages (English & Hindi on the front, and 15 others on the back) illustrating the diversity of the country. Being a country of a billion the currency passes through a plethora of hands.

As I began to count the ensemble of bills I realized that money literally really stinks! As my fingers went through the stack I saw that it included everything from smells of ink, bleach, Indian curry and sweat all mixed in one. The older bills, that were torn from passing through many hands smelt like stale like dead flowers kept too long with tears and pen marks that perhaps would tell a story if followed. When placed together in a bundle it puts a unique smell and also puts in perspective the hopes of the people that could do with it. As I looked at all bills from small to large, it seemed odd that the face that adorned them all was of Mahatma Gandhi, a person who renounced all worldly values in order to live a simple life.