Daily wage earner Amir Khan's extended family says the note ban has hit them hard too
It is 8 in the morning and for 60-year-old mason Amir Khan, a migrant from Uttar Pradesh's drought-hit Bundelkhand region, it looks like the day will involve yet another futile wait for work on a South Delhi road - the third such day in succession.
Mr Khan is one among thousands from Bundelkhand who work as daily wagers in bigger cities each year, sending back money to help their families survive successive years of drought.
The last three days have been very bad for Mr Khan and others like him - a shortage of new notes after the government banned older 500 and 1000 rupee ones has meant no work.
"Work is not coming... Even when we go they give us old notes - because of which we are not going to them for work anymore either. People are not getting new work done either... they're saying when new notes come they will hire," says Mr Khan.
500 kilometres away, Mr Khan's village in Bundelkhand's Jhansi district, is about 100 kilometres from the nearest big city, and getting there means negotiating some very bad roads.
At his four-room hut in the village, Mr Khan's extended family says the note ban has hit them hard too. Three out the family's nine members work as daily wagers in bigger cities.
19-year-old din Mohammed returned home just yesterday, after his plywood factory about 150 kilometres from Ahmedabad shut down - the owners unable to pay wages. The Rs 15,000 he saved up in the last few months, are all old 1,000-rupee notes.
"They told me once they were in a position to reopen the factory they would call. All these notes, I'll line up at the closest bank and try and get them exchanged soon," says Mr Mohammed.
20-year-old Feroze Khan returned from Delhi, with Rs 10,000 worth old notes a week ago, and has managed to exchange just Rs 4,000 so far - barely enough to cover the family's daily needs. "I don't have any loans but my father does, so the sooner I get more money exchanged at the bank the better it is," he says.
Riya is a village with about 1000 voters, many of whom are migrants who go looking for work each year to bigger towns. After four years, this is the first time farmers are hopeful of a winter crop - it rained sufficiently earlier this year. "Even if this hits us hard for some time, I guess we'll have to support the government. If black money goes out of the system, it's good for the poor," says Shyam Sharma, a farmer.