The Hindu Business Line : Decimal disorder

Fifty years ago a conversion upheaval swept through the whole of India. Hold on! It was no religious conversion. It was about quite another denomination — of the currency. Yes, Indian coinage went decimal. The changeover took effect on April 1, 1957.

For the first few years both decimal and non-decimal coins were in circulation. It led to hassles of conversion — of the value of the old anna in terms of the new paise called naya paise. The rupee now consisted of 100 naya paise.

Earlier the rupee comprised 192 pice, the smallest denomination of the old system. The denominations were pice, quarter anna, half anna, one anna, two anna, four anna, eight anna or half a rupee and rupee. A rupee consisted of 16 annas or 64 quarter annas.

The quarter anna came in copper coins of the size of today's one rupee. It also came with an hole that made it possible to string 64 such coins together to make a garland of coins worth one rupee.

Shopkeepers would give one such garland as change for one rupee, charging a princely premium of quarter anna. In later years, when it lost its currency, this coin caused much amusement as innovative plumbers and general mechanics used it as a washer to fix nuts and bolts.

It was common during the early days of decimal changeover to see people haggle heatedly with the grocers, owners of eateries and restaurants over the exact value of the anna in terms of the naya paise.

For instance, those days a "limited meal" was priced at four anna. It should convert into 25 naya paise as four anna was a quarter of a rupee. But eateries priced it at 26 naya paise.

The quarrel over one naya paise was understandable as that would fetch a packet of peanuts and a piece of jaggery worth rupees two today! It would also fetch one piece of the ubiquitous kammarkat, a delicious candy made of coconut and jaggery. Similarly, in cinema halls, the front benches cost four anna a seat.

Now it became 26 naya paise, again leading to much quibbling at the counter.

The same bench seat cost 18 naya paise for afternoon shows, popularly known as "matinee" that often featured the best of Laurel and Hardy, and Charlie Chaplin, the ultimate in entertainment for a whole generation still far away from the satellite TV era.

(A former deputy editor with PTI, the writer is a New Delhi-based freelance journalist. Please send feedback to rajamanirc@gmail.com)