How the crunch broke me - Two sides of the demonetisation coin: A bedridden Calcuttan and the bed demon of Bangalore

TT, 1 December 2016: I have been bedridden since 2004, when I retired, but I kept pursuing my research and my writing. Not any more. Now, the cash crunch has broken me.

I am a patient of myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disorder that causes weakness in the skeletal muscles, which are the muscles the body uses for movement, and I cannot do anything on my own.

I need to be taken care of all the time. I am running a temperature and I should be hospitalised immediately but I cannot leave my home, thanks to the lack of cash.

How do I pay my two caregivers and other domestic help? Don't they need money?

I need to be administered oxygen from time to time. Where does that come from?

I live in a third-floor flat belonging to my elder sister at Ranikuthi. These are government quarters and the house does not have a lift.

But I need to visit the neurology department of Peerless Hospital, and for that I need an ambulance. For each trip I require Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000, but where does that come from?

I cannot withdraw my own money from the bank. Incidentally, I do not get pension and have to depend entirely on my bank.

How much longer will this torture continue?

Even when I get somebody to go to the bank, I get Rs 2,000 notes. How do I get hold of notes of a lower denomination to pay the men who sell vegetables and fish? Anyway, most of them have stopped coming. Thankfully, the medicine shop is very kindly cooperating. They get me change.

I don't use a mobile phone and I don't possess a PC. So there is no question of going cashless.

I am sure there are many others like me who are suffering.

I am broken, both physically and mentally.