In my school
days, I would buy a bun-samosa combo for 25 Paise . And for another 25 Paise, a bottle of Coca-Cola or Gold Spot ! and that
was as good as a Mc Donald value meal
minus the fries!!
Vellore: Sometimes my Patti would run short of an essential
ingredient (like pepper, jeera or methi seeds) while cooking and she would ask
one of us grand kids to run to the nearby provision store and buy.
And we would
fight among us to ensure that we (one of us)
get nominated for this errand.
By the way, I
wonder how many moms in SP have sent their 6 year olds rushing to CT Street to
buy a packet of perungayam (hing) and a bunch of dhania (coriander leaves) ??
And would that
kid know the difference between dhania and kadi patta ??
And I am
sure most kids, even older may not know how to differentiate between channa
daal and arhar daal or between saunf and jeera??
Thankfully they
may not need to know so early in their life. .
Nowadays
when a mom runs out of something, all she has to do is fire up her WhatsApp and send an SoS to the Palladian ladies group ,
“ Emergency!! Need a spoonful of haldi please!!!”
And presto! There will be at least 4 willing moms to help
her. And everyone in this group knows the
advantages & virtue of being
immediately helpful – because they themselves would be in dire need of a few
pieces of ginger and a few green chillies someday!!!
A big thanks
to Jan and Brian for their contribution
to the world!!
Back to Vellore.
Everyone of us (meaning 7) grand kids would be most happy to run errands for Patti.
She would give a bag and a few coins to
buy what she wanted.
And we would
run up to the farthermost shop on the
opposite road and to Kesavan mama’s
Lakshmi Provision store for our purchase. While this meant more distance and running
in the scorching heat, it was well worth the effort. Kesavan Mama had a glass
jar full of broken pieces of sugar sweets and candy bars. And after he took our
money and handed us the purchase, he would reach out for that jar containing
multicolored bits of candies. He would dip in his hand and dole out a generous
portion of the broken candies along with a lot of crushed candy powder as well.
And if and when the jar ran out he always
had that big gunny bag full of jaggery from where he would extract a small lump
for us.
That’s kosuru in Tamil and runga
in Hindi !
This was his
CRM and he maintained our 100% loyalty!
No reward
points, monthly statements or fancy e-award websites for him. Plain instant gratification
worked out best for him !!!
And by the
way a few coins in a 6 year old’s hand was sufficient to buy a fair amount of
daily necessities then. Seering a one rupee paper note was rare and thatha kept
them along with the pale green 5 rupee notes in a leather clip-on wallet inside
the Godrej locker. Grandmom kept coins for daily and incidental purchases in
her kitchen. She stored low denomination coins like 0ne , Two , Three and Five
and Ten paises in a Bournvita tin and on the middle shelf of her larder. The naalanna
and ettanna ones (4 annas and eight annas), she put them in a small eversilver (stainless-steel)
dubba and hid that behind the square sugar tin on the top shelf.
Our maid
Aandal would hide her coins deeply buried inside her rice tin or daal tins,
well out of reach from her drunkard husband.
Over the
last 55 years things have changed.
Wonder how
many of SP 6 year olds have seen the small copper one paise disc?
Or the square
two and five paise nickel coins? Some rumors had it that a business man was siphoning off all these coins from the market and
melting them to extract nickel which was more valuable than the coin itself!!
Or the
hexagon shaped later generation two paise and three paise and five paise aluminium
coins ?
Or the light
weight ten paise and the brass tinted twenty paise round coins ??
Its no
longer the coin era, but I read somewhere that the Indian government is planning
to mint new coins very soon.
While our
earnings have multiplied an average forty times, the prices seem to have gone
up fifty times! And unless you were able to beat the inflation and get richer by
making significant career jumps and subsequently quantum salary jumps, you
would be poorer now.
I started at
Rs700/- per month as a trainee and was
confirmed at Rs. 1350/- a proud four figure salary then! And I remember The Hindu
and Hindustan Times matrimonial’s ‘brides wanted’ section proudly announcing the eligible boy earning five figure salary per anum!
Today even a
million in Indian rupees doesn't mean much. You need to earn a lot more .
And a plum IT
job in a multinational company backed up with a US green card can ensure definite success in your bride hunting
venture, , I bet !!
Things have
changed !
The coins
were replaced by paper currency. And paper currency was replaced by plastic
cards. And plastic cards are getting rerpalced
by e-pay thru the ubiquitous smartphone and very soon there will be crypto currency
all over.
Yuval Noah Harari
rightly said , currency is a story !
A wonderful
make believe story created by mankind !!
Krish..
