Friday, the 13th of November was declared as a Delhi Bandh by the BJP to protest the increasing price rise. It is already almost evening and nothing has come out of it. No burning of busses and basically no stoppage of usual activities. No reaction from developmental Delhi-ites.
But even though Delhi is not reacting on the outside, there remains a small voice of protest that remains on the inside of the Delhi-ite that has stood the test of price rise over the ages. This little voice wants to speak of the times when people used to get salaries no more than a hundred rupees and still get on with their lives as the worth of the rupee at that time was worth much more than it is today.
Today when the lowest bus ticket has become 5 rupees, you would think that 1 and 2 rupees have lost their value and want to get rid of them as soon as possible. But even in today’s costly era I have dug out the worth of the one rupee.
The following are things which can be purchased for just one rupee:
- 1 cup water
- 1 toffee – éclairs, big bubble, center fresh, boomer
- 1 refill
- Eraser (local band)
- 1 matchbox
- 1 pan parag pan masala, pass pass
- 4-5 bedis
– 1 cigarette (local brand)
- Rubber bands
- 2 polythene bags
- Blank A-4 sheet of paper
- 1 Photocopy/Printout
- In weddings for shagun ( eg 200 +1, 500 +1, 1000 +1, etc)
- In Airfare + taxes (1+3000, 1 +4000, etc)
- 1-shampoo sachet– clinic, sunsilk
- STD, local mobile calls, depending on plan
One day when price rise is high enough, the one rupee will be redundant, but still hold on to it because after 25 yrs when it is declared an antique it may have double the value on ebay…….
