New Delhi: The name of Saud Ur Rehman is still fresh in the memory of the residents of Mohalla Rodgran in Lal Kuan in the walled city. The small lanes and bylanes lead to a small printing and designing shop that has curved brown wooden doors. Ask anybody and they would quickly recall the trauma that the family of Saud Ur Rehman went through after he suffered a cardiac arrest standing in a bank queue on November 16, 2016.
It was the demonetisation that compelled Rehman to stand in the bank queue to exchange his old currency notes however, after two unsuccessful attempts he went on the third day as well to try his luck. However, he complained of uneasiness and a seething chest pain. He called his relatives and was rushed to a hospital. Half an hour later, he died at central Delhi's Hospital.
Life has been tough for the family since then. Though the family never came out of the trauma, his son Suhaib looks after his father's business. "Saud was my younger brother. It has been really tragic for us. One of his daughter just got married a month back. He could not survive to see this happiness," said Ubaid Rehman, Saud's brother.
Ubaid runs a medicine shop outside gali Hajjan Bi in the walled city, meters away from where his nephew Suhaib sits in his father's designing shop. The neighbours too had their own share of memories. They feel demonetisation has adversely affected their business. "It was really a scary experience, getting up and lining in the queue uncertain if we would succeed in getting some money last year. However, today I find nothing changed," said Pradeep, a businesman nearby.
Mohd Akhter says "I have a interior decoration small factory in Gurugram. Earlier, I had 14 boys at work now only three. Post demonetisation , the business failed to gain momentum."