Remember when weekends used to mean waking up late, and lazing around all day? Well, the Modi sarkar’s demonetisation drive has totally put an end to that. For the service class, it is obviously difficult to queue up in front of banks/ATMs on the week days. Hence, from two weekends now, people have been trying to make the most of their days off by trying to get their hands on some cash in these dire conditions.

Like with most news related to the Modi sarkar these days (since 2014, really), anytime someone says something that is remotely critical of the government, a huge number of people jump ahead to call it a lie or skewing of facts. One cannot deny the fact that there have been a few incidents of wrong reportage as well. But calling everything reported about the PM a lie, is stretching it too far.

Truth be told, anyone who has stepped out of their homes to visit a bank will know that things are as bad as they have ever been. [Photo: Indiatoday.in]

This has been the case, more than ever, for the demonetisation drive. While media reports every day tell stories of deaths and major problems caused by this decidedly unplanned move, the fanboys of BJP line up to shoot these claims down, armed to the teeth with excuses like “minor inconvenience”, “lies”, “you support black money”, and “if the armed forces can...”.

Truth be told, anyone who has stepped out of their homes to visit a bank will know that things are as bad as they have ever been. The queues keep getting longer and the cash keeps running dry faster. Defunct ATM vestibules have probably reached record numbers by now and of course, more people keep dying because of this economic disaster every day.

Tinu Cherian Abraham, a Bangalore-based social media influencer decided that Sunday was a good day to verify if the media was actually spreading lies. He decided to go from ATM to ATM in and around the Whitefield and the KR Puram areas in Bengaluru.

They say ATMs r running normal. Thought to withdraw some money and perhaps do a reality check if media is 'spreading lies'. #DeMonetisation — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

Tinu Cherian started at 10.30 am and covered 23 ATMs on foot, in the next 6 hours. "It was an impromptu plan on a Sunday. Under normal circumstances, all the ATMs in the city should be working and I decided to do a status check. As my tweets carried the time and details of the ATMs, there was no reason for any kind of ambiguity in them," he said to The News Minute.

Stop 3 : Another @HDFC_Bank 24 hrs ATM. Shutter was half down. No security. Tried the card. didn't dispense any cash. Errored out. pic.twitter.com/bYZ6NOpJcL — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

Stop 4 : @ICICIBank 24 Hrs ATM - next to Golden Blossoms Apts #Bengaluru - shutter down - 'ATM services are currently unavailable' . pic.twitter.com/yXQLDYEz26 — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

Stop 5 : @canarabanktweet Sri Satya Sai Ashram ATM - Have Cash - queue of 40 - 50 ppl. First Cash available of 1/5 ATMs visited pic.twitter.com/JMIYPZLz1f — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

Stop 7 : @HDFC_Bank ATM opp to #Whitefield station - Shutters Down pic.twitter.com/InMflaoTiP — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

Stop 9 : Bank Of Maharashtra #Seegehalli Branch ATM - shutters down - not sure if this ATM operates 24hrs . #ATMtrail #Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/X4ZmfjIWsr — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

Stop 10 : @karurvysyabank next to Nitesh Forest Hills - 'out of service' . I have never seen this ATM ever closed #ATMTrail #Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/HGJeAZ17O5 — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

Stop 12 - @ICICIBank Kannamangala Branch - 24 hour ATM - shutters down - security guard said no cash . #ATMTrail #Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/G7bIAGtjEH — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

Stop 15 - @SBTonline #Whitefield RAC PC Branch ATM-CASH available - Only 2000 Rs notes -less than 10 ppl in the queue. #ATMtrail #Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/uCAi2EDqDJ — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

Visited 16 ATMs in 3 hours. NO CASH in 13 of them. Two have only 2000 Rs notes. One has cash - 40-50 ppl queue then. #ATMTrail #Bengaluru — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

Most ATMs he visited, that he documented with photos, had no cash at all. The other few that did, had long queues and dispensed only Rs 2,000 notes.

Stop 17 : @CanarabankIndia ATM Pai Layout, K R Puram - has cash . Only 2000 Rs notes.Checked with ppl in the queue . #ATMTrail #Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/KoJ6dna2eU — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

ATM 18 : @ICICIBank off 1st main Road Pai Layout K R Puram - ' NO Cash- Sorry' #ATMtrail #Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/m6Hrt2lZUj — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

ATM 20 : @HDFC_Bank 2nd Main Pai Layout K R Puram - 'Temporarily Out of Service' . #ATMtrail #Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/ML2dTqEuI3 — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

ATM 21 : @AxisBank SDS Mini tower 2nd main Pai Layout K R Puram - Shutter down. #ATMtrail #Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/BBDi9n1YI6 — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

ATM 23 : @CanarabankIndia ATM 6th Cross PAI Layout . shutter half down - possibly no cash. #ATMtrail #Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/JQgaGnhOwF — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

Exhausted and Dehydrated like hell, guys. Cannot do it any more. #ATMTrail #Bengaluru — Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) November 20, 2016

The final count? Of the 23 ATMs he visited, only four ATMs were functional.

Verdict: There absolutely is a cash crunch and anyone who believes that this is a minor inconvenience, is either kidding themselves, or is too blind with Modi love to perceive the truth at all.

Also read - Demonetisation: Rhetoric as policy and people as fools