The former 50 franc note featured aviator and author Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I’ve spent the last few days in bank queues from 6.30 am, and have managed to enter the bank at about 10 am, hoping to withdraw a measly part of my own savings. Frankly, I’d rarely met that part of the morning; it was a revelation. Sweepers still swept away the remains of Diwali akashbuttis, morning milk arrived in a gleaming steel tank on wheels and reached the shop through a dirty, green irrigation plastic pipe. I’m working on a book and it’s a fantastic undisturbed three hours for ideas and jottings, as it’s too early for anyone to call you. Finally, after an eternal wait, I managed to get a few of those R2,000 notes.