In October '07 I had an e-mail from an Ajit appreciating my online currency note collection of Indian currency. Then on Facebook he added me, which is when I came to know he is an officer at the RBI, Bangalore.

On Sunday I had a call from his saying he would be in Mangalore for a couple of hours (training officers at the Corporation Bank staff training college) and would like to meet me.

So on Monday when we contacted it turned out the only time we would get was when he finished his class and was going back to the airport. He also said he a bunch of star series notes for me!? I went there at 3:45 picked Ajit up (I knew how he looked since he had his photo up on Facebook, instead of say a flower or a question mark;-) heh!)

The deal actually was to leave my car there and travel in the bank's car to the airport and back. But then I am very comfortable while driving my car, and I can speak with my eyes on the road. So we decided to ditch the bank's car. Which was good since it was a cheesy Maruti 800. I wouldn't have fitted in the back anyway.

Yes I got the star series notes. These are notes that you will never find in a catalogue or on eBay.in. What Ajit told was that whenever there is a error note in a bundle at the secuirty press, the entire bundle was scrapped. Now what they do is remove the error note and replace it with a note having an identical serial number. Except that there is an asterix it between the alphanumeric and serial number so instead of 23H 123456 it will be 23H*123456. Remember this!

So it was an eventful trip to the airport, the flight was delayed so we got to speak more at the restaurant. I was going there after a long while and the terminal seems to be growing. I was unable to recognise it from my last visit a more than a year ago. I could spot some work going on the taxiway that would join the new runway to the old and to the terminal building.

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Well! Well!