Autobiography of 500 and 1000 Rupee Notes Essay

500 Notes

"The value of us is so important that even if we get crushed, our importance and worth is never depleted."

I, 500 rupees was born in October 1987. The Reserve Bank of India created me in order to contain the increasing number of bank notes, which was a result of inflation.

Instead of the Emblem of India, which was the Lion Capital of Sarnath, I had the design of Mahatma Gandhi and it led to the popularity of the design and redesigning of other Indian bank notes. It also leads to the introduction of the first Mahatma Gandhi Series banknotes. I was a 167 X 73mm orange-yellow colored and had the signature of the governor of The Reserve Bank of India. I had Braille feature in order to help the visually challenged in identifying me.

The security features in me included a windowed security thread which read 'Bharat' in the Devanagari script and also 'RBI' alternately, I had the latent image of the banknote which was on the right-hand side of Mahatma Gandhi's portrait on the vertical band, I have the watermark of Mahatma Gandhi which is a mirror image of the main portrait, the bank note's number panel is printed in embedded fluorescent fibers and optically variable ink, machine-readable security thread, electrotype watermark and also the year of print appears on the note which was an additional security feature added since 2005. I was demonetized on November 8, 2016, in order to fight corruption and my name lives on in history.

1000 Notes

I, 1000 rupee was born in 1938 under the British rule and was brought into circulation by the Reserve Bank of India but was demonetized in 1946. After Independence, I was introduced again 1954 but again in January 1978 1000, 5000 and 10,000, which were high-denomination notes were demonetized in order to reduce the unaccounted cash money. But due to inflation, it was necessary to maintain the volume of bank notes, so I was again re-introduced in November 2000 and I was a part of Mahatma Gandhi Series Bank Notes. I am a 177 X 73 mm Amber-red colored and my obverse side features the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi and has the signature of the Governor of Reserve Bank of India. I also, like 500 rupees have Braille feature in order to help the visually impaired. The reverse side of me has the motif of an oil rig, a satellite and a steel foundry, which all together features the Economy of India. The security features in me is similar to that of 500 rupee note. 500 rupee note and I have its value written in 17 languages and on the obverse, it is written in English and Marathi. There is a panel on the reverse which shows the denomination in 15 languages out of the 22 which are official. I was also demonetized on November 8, 2016.

We both had a very painful feeling after being replaced or left out because we had a long bond with humans. But on demonitisation date everybody wanted to throwaway us. However everyone has been loved us so much that they felt high pain on our end of life. Our beauty and look had created so impressive relationship that it was very hard for the people to separate us from their money wallet. They were touching us with a teary look. We both have cried very much since 8 pm of that night. We had been with them through hook and crook but we understood that our sacrifice was necessary for their development. Thus, our story is one which will be remembered forever because we gave up our value to fight corruption.