the indian rupee trick

sadhuji

The latest news in the media revolves around the charm of one rupee – both BSNL and MTNL have decided that telephone rates need to be within reach of the poorest of poor. Whether he gets two square meals a day or whether he has a roof above his head or whether he has clothes to hide his nudity are not important, what is more important is that he should be linked via telephone to all others.

Readers will laugh when I tell them that there was a time when the day’s market of vegetables and fish for a family of six could be completed in only two rupees – with a few paise to spare for the cigarette! It was the late fifties. I had finished my schooling and had stepped into the world of adults – smoking was one of the first tentative steps to declare to the world at large that I had ceased to be a child. The second was to enter cinema halls that showed cinemas with the ‘A’ tag. The ushers were very particular in these matters and, if they had any doubt, they would prevent your entry.

I do not remember the cost of individual items in those days but I do remember that my mother would hand over two rupees to me and I would be on my way – the market was an early morning one, and everything used to be garden fresh. There was nothing artificial about the products. It was that glorious period when five kilograms of sugar cost two rupees, when a tin of condensed milk could be had for just under a rupee and when one could get eight ducks eggs for a rupee. If you were a regular, the shopkeeper would give you nine!

Later, when I started my family, I purchased rice for a rupee per kilogram and wheat for fifty paise. The cost of a whole basketful of onion was only twelve paise, grapes could be had for two rupees per kilogram and bananas one rupee per dozen. Even mutton was two rupees per kilo and the cost of ten grams of gold was a hundred and fifty rupees.

Times are certainly not the same any longer. Last Saturday, I did my weekly marketing of vegetables – I paid around a hundred and fifty rupees for the greens. I will go for fish on Tuesday and know I will have to shell out around a hundred rupees for that. There are only two members in my family right now, me and my wife.

I purchased the Vijay Super scooter in 1978 when the cost of petrol was around eight rupees per liter. Now I shell out slightly less than five hundred rupees for ten liters of petrol for my car – the trusted Premier Padmini. It is an old timer like me and is still trustworthy. Only, I do not dare to take it out in the jam-packed city traffic – my reflexes, like my vehicles, are slow and not as responsive as I would like them to be in the midst of wild drivers who feel they are in America when they maneuver the bumps and holes in our roads. My Padmini and I are happy to move in the calm and quiet surroundings on the way to the local market or to visit the doctor for the monthly check up.

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mooning over a moon journey

ddutta

Well written sadhuji. Even I remember the price of mutton rs10/- per kg. (now rs160/- per kg ) and the extra egg / sweet / candy given by the local shop keepers as a "fau" .Those days are really gone

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"If you smile at me I will understand, because that is something everyone everywhere does in the same language"

Eldaras

Nice post sadhuji!

Nick-H

Hmm, yes.... same the world over, of course. Perhaps India, for the price of basic necessities, has suffered less than many places --- one of the reasons I'm here.

Wish I'd known the place when shopping could be done in paise: I'm sure there was more difference than just the prices.

Still... I had an electrician come today to move two fans and fit two new ones. Rs100. Last week he repaired a UV-light-plus-fan insect trap for me; parts (a new circuit board) 100Rs, labour 50. One of the great things is that heaps of stuff gets repaired here that would be just chucked in Europe. I see men beating the dents out of kitchen pots; reassembling car radiators and mending kerosene stoves that look ancient.

I recoiled in horror at the price of nearly GBP3 for a nice, hand-blocked cotton nightie only today, because I knew that my wife would say, "you paid how much?"! She thinks it is pretty extravagent that I like to buy basmati rice for everyday cooking, not just for special-occasion birrianis.

The idea in UK of spending just GBP2 (150Rs) in the veg shop would probably astound people! Even in my extravagence I seldom manage to spend more than four or five hundred (around GBP5) in a supermarket: In UK I find it hard to get out of one for less than GBP30!

Mind you: Rs15 a gram for gold! There's something to dream about! Today's price is Rs788!

Hey, Saduji; I was a child in the fifties too ---- we're not that old! . Yet...

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

gautam_n_

Hi,

The salaries were as bad .

SitaParityaga

Beautifully written, Sadhji. In my neighborhood, we have to pay extra for vegtables that are grown without pesticides.

Very thought provoking article.

manojb

Yes, my dad always starts off about old times saying that his job paid Rs. 275 in the beginning (in 1964). When he retired in 1997 he was being paid around Rs. 18,000 a month.

sadhuji

how very similar to me. he must be one of my comtemporaries.

sockeyeron

Thanks sadhuji, a very interesting discussion.
I also started work in 1964 alas I am still working-sort of.

Cigarettes were 39 cents a pack of twenty then and now about $6.70
Gas was 39 cents a gallon and now 89.9 a liter.

When you look at todays prices India really is a bargain.

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Carpe Weekendum

jivan

cool posts. edsita: I guess what u're referring to is organic veggies. There are various factors for this right from veggies take more space to grow & deliver physically lesser than the magic of genetic food. I mean quantity here rather than quality.
The second is certification. If u're in America or Europe or even in India but having the European certification then that again ups the prices as certification itself is bureaucratic, time-consuming & pretty expensive. Also when the farmer changes from pesticide to pesticide-free farming it takes 3-5 yrs. for the health of the land to become normal after which they're really organic. What is sold in the interim is the relatively pesticide-free produce.

jivan

Sadhuji : It's not just BSNL & MTNL but almost all the service providers are going the same route as they wanna penetrate deeper. I'm sure there would be some consolidations in the medium-term (3-5 yrs.) after which the prices might go up a little bit. But never to the levels we had before the 90's.