Our school days were days of rupees, annas and paisa – 16 annas was equivalent to one rupee and four paisa was equivalent to one anna. It was in 1957 that decimal coinage (one rupee was made equivalent to 100 naya paise – this term naya paise was to differentiate it from the existing paisa. The ‘naya’ was later withdrawn and it became just paise.)
It took people some time to get gradually accustomed to the new system which embraced all measures including weights, volumes and even lengths.
Anyway, this is not a treatise on that subject but through this, I will try to highlight the cost of living in the 1950s – I still remember going with my father to the Shyambazar market for purchase of monthly provisions that ranged from rice and sugar to cooking oils, dals, maida and spices etcetera.
The measure of weights was in seers – one seer was nearly equivalent to one Kilogram or Kg and for two rupees, we would be able to buy five seers of good quality of sugar. The shopkeeper would weigh the sugar into a large paper bag. Paper bags were the order of the day – no plastics or polythene. In those days, no one had heard of environmental pollution.
Similarly, one tin of Milkmaid condensed milk would come for 14-annas – that was less than a rupee. And, for as little as two rupees per day, one could easily procure vegetables and fish for a family of six!! (to be continued…)
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