A 'bachelor' friend 'Babun' who used to work for AAI, had the habit of withdrawing about 15k from his salary account every month as petty cash for his household expenses, typically, he would spend under 12k and rest would be used as a page marker for the novels he would read (he was a voracious reader of Bengali and English detective / spy novels.
I once borrowed a book from him and found 5k in 500₹ denomination in the book and returned the same to him the next day. He laughed and said "I keep forgetting important parts of the story and and like to go back to the pages to refer, and don't like to dog ear the book as the books are precious to me" therefore for want of a page marker, I simply use the ₹ notes for important pages.
Many years later, Babun, passed away at another station where he was transferred.
When, I heard about the same from a common friend 'Naresh', Who too was at the same location, I told him about the page markers.
For his funeral, "Babun's" only family member, his nephew had travelled across.
Naresh, accompanied the nephew to Babun's quarters to ensure he was handed over the possessions.
Naresh, as a courtesy, invited Babun's Nephew over to his own quarters for a drink and dinner.
After a peg or two, the nephew loosened up and informed Naresh, that he had no other family other than his Uncle Babun, and that even his school and college fees were paid by him, and now that Babun was no more, he did not know how he would complete his studies.
Naresh, was upset to hear this and informed him that he would help him get the PF and other money lying in the bank if he could prove that he was the only relative.
They both discussed the whole process and realised that it would take some time to recover the money as well as some legal fees as cost.
Next day in the morning, Naresh accompanied Babun's Nephew to Babun's quarters and started packing Babun's personal effects: there were over 300 Novel's, 2 steel trunks and one office bag.
The office bag when opened, contained a ₹1000 stamp paper, with Babun's signed and sealed Will in favour of his nephew Khokun.
Khokun and Naresh were overjoyed with this discovery, and while reading the same Naresh, noticed that Babun had mentioned not only his savings and investments, but also his collection of books.
Naresh, immediately told Khokun of Babun's habit of using ₹notes as page markers!
Both of them started opening the books one by one and Lo and Behold! There was money in each and every book!
Naresh, called me that day and made me speak with an emotionally charged Khokun, he asked me what he could do for me for having remembered and shared such an important piece of information.
I happily asked Khokun, to check if there was a Bengali Novel named:
"Feludar Goendagiri" by the famous Indian author Satyajit Ray translated to English.
Khokun, laughed and said: that book had the maximum amount of money in it, a whole ₹5000.00
......How did you Know.... Which one to ask for....????
The rich legacy of women and men in India of spiriting away money for a rainy day, is the only reason I wouldn't agree to an expiry date of on the currency, other than that, the idea is good.
I hope all the group members liked the short story I just cooked up, I hope to write many more once I retire from active work. Other than my friend Babun, all other characters are fictional and so is the whole story other than the fact that Babun actually had the habit of using ₹ notes as page markers.
Give me high fives ✋???? if you like the story. ☺️ ????
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