Preparations for Alvin Mendonca's brother's wedding have been hit by the notes ban.
Alvin Mendonca, drove past the Bengaluru palace ground this week on his way to work in Bengaluru, but unlike many other people,
the ostentatious wedding of politician and mining baron Janardhana Reddy's daughter being held there did not have top of the mind recall for him. The media professional is worried about another wedding.
Mr Mendonca's family is struggling to pull off the wedding of his brother Kevin on December 19 in Mangalore, about 350 km away from the Karnataka capital, with preparations badly hit by the rationing of new notes and limited withdrawals allowed after the government banned 500 and 1000 rupee notes.
Shopping and payment to vendors have been held up and the family says the government's concession that they can draw 2.5 lakh rupees for weddings doesn't help much.
"We have to purchase clothes, jewellery. Vendors are asking for advance payment, we have to pay wedding halls. We have to go to office too, how will we go and stand in a queue for two hours in a bank? 2.5 lakh rupees is just not enough," said Mr Mendonca.
The flamboyant wedding of mining baron Janardhana Reddy's daughter was held in Bengaluru.
Vendors who provide services for weddings say they have seen a dip in business, as it is a sector that largely depends on cash transactions.
Ankit Raval, who works at WeddingZ, a leading wedding services company, said he welcomed demonetisation, but expects business to be impacted for the short term. "Mehendi artists, photographers, decorators are facing a liquidity crunch, because of the note problem. We are not able to give them cash as money is transferred to our account by clients," he explained.
Families like Alvin Mendonca's which have weddings coming up are now hoping the government is able to infuse more new notes into the system before their special days to ease the situation. Some also ask how the cash crunch did not affect the Reddy wedding, which organisers say cost 30 crore, at a time when people are struggling to find cash to buy essentials.
Reddy family members say most bills for the November 16 wedding were paid by cheque before Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his sudden announcement on November 8 that the government was pulling high-value notes out of circulation within hours in an attempt to eliminate black or untaxed money.