Possession of money is one of great fascinations even from our childhood. Small changes found their way into children’s money boxes. Having a box full was a proud feeling. Counting and putting them back was often a pleasurable occupation at a young age. Sometimes, the temptation to spend part of it would get the better of our young minds. To do that without knowledge of elders required some guts esp. to those less adventurous.
My mind often ticks back to my 2nd std. days around the early 1960s when guts had come one evening. I had an old little leather purse to keep my ‘savings’, which mostly consisted of one paisa (copper) and two paise (nickel) coins totaling not even two rupees. I was to learn long later that the value of the rupee in those years was full 100 paise! It was not a joke when my grandmother used to say how many things a rupee could buy.
There was a small shop in the road next to our house and the shopkeeper knew where I belonged. I had secretly taken my street-mate Buddi, also of my age, to that shop. Confectionery items displayed in wide-mouthed glass bottles have never failed to attract little kids. We had fallen for that and I had money in my fat purse! Lemon lozenges and coconut peppermints cost one paisa each while two colour-coated peppermints came for just one paisa. We bought many and had a feast for hardly spending twenty paise! And it was not a small sum.
The next day, the shopkeeper had informed my house about our shopping spree and I had to admit it. In my college days, my father used to give me five rupees as ‘pocket money’ from which I used to save about a rupee even after buying a weekly sports magazine. I have saved this little purse as a reminder to the incident and of the valuable lesson learnt at that tender age. It has constantly stood me in good stead.
(Attached is the picture of that very purse. and the coinage of that period, in one and two paisa coins)
My mind often ticks back to my 2nd std. days around the early 1960s when guts had come one evening. I had an old little leather purse to keep my ‘savings’, which mostly consisted of one paisa (copper) and two paise (nickel) coins totaling not even two rupees. I was to learn long later that the value of the rupee in those years was full 100 paise! It was not a joke when my grandmother used to say how many things a rupee could buy.
There was a small shop in the road next to our house and the shopkeeper knew where I belonged. I had secretly taken my street-mate Buddi, also of my age, to that shop. Confectionery items displayed in wide-mouthed glass bottles have never failed to attract little kids. We had fallen for that and I had money in my fat purse! Lemon lozenges and coconut peppermints cost one paisa each while two colour-coated peppermints came for just one paisa. We bought many and had a feast for hardly spending twenty paise! And it was not a small sum.
The next day, the shopkeeper had informed my house about our shopping spree and I had to admit it. In my college days, my father used to give me five rupees as ‘pocket money’ from which I used to save about a rupee even after buying a weekly sports magazine. I have saved this little purse as a reminder to the incident and of the valuable lesson learnt at that tender age. It has constantly stood me in good stead.
(Attached is the picture of that very purse. and the coinage of that period, in one and two paisa coins)
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