Nearly three weeks after 500 and 1,000 rupee notes were withdrawn normalcy appeared to be at bay.
While queues outside ATMs in Connaught Place in central Delhi built up through the day, the scenes however weren't unruly. Nearly three weeks after 500 and 1,000 rupee notes were withdrawn, plunging much of the country into a scramble for cash, normalcy appeared to be at bay.
Vijay Dwivedi, a 23-year-old shop-owner was among the first to join the morning queue outside Punjab National Bank. "Earlier there was a major crowd (outside ATMs) every day. Now that has reduced. One need only stand for 10-15 minutes to get cash," he said.
27-year-old Ramesh Singh praised the government's strategies to deal with the cash situation. "You can see for yourself that now ATMs have cash. In addition to this there are micro ATMs, even cash vans in certain areas."
Authorities for their part are claiming that ATMs across the country are being recalibrated on a war-footing to deal with the heightened volume of cash seekers.
"Over 1.25 lakh ATMs (around 60 per cent of the entire number) across India have been recalibrated. Every hour we are making it a point to replenish ATMs multiple times in one day," said Rituraj Sinha, President of the Cash Logistics Association of India.
But just 18 km away, in Delhi's Tigri, Devli and Khanpur villages, only three of the 15 ATMs were functioning.
"We have left all our work and come here," said 23-year-old Samina, a resident of Tigri. There is nobody else to stand in the lines so we having do it ourselves."
In Bengaluru too shuttered ATMs were a common sight.
"I've been looking for cash for the last 10 days, but haven't had much luck," said a non-resident Indian we spoke to at one of the ATM machines.
A similar story of many ATMs shut on the weekend was the case in Mumbai as well, but not everybody was complaining.
"After demonetisation, I have stopped overspending. So I now know how to manage my funds well. Other than that I have started using Paytm and going cashless," said 24- year old student Aniket Joshi referring to the popular electronic wallet service.
In Bhiwandi, a city in the western state of Maharashtra, some suppliers of fruits and vegetables even put up posters saying that are accepting cards for payments.
"Banks are shut, ATMs are shut, so I am buying fruits by debit card," said Ahmed Patel.
"ATMs are still mainly giving out 2000 rupee notes, there is no change available because of which we have started this," said fruit-seller Subhash Gupta.
"Now the customers that don't have change are swiping their cards," he added.