Madras 50 years back: in 1968

I had a good conversation with my uncle recently. Whenever he meets me, he usually talks about his past. I enjoy listening to those stories, since I am transported back to a different world.

This time, he started talking about his life in Madras, back in 1968. We were talking about the high prices of stuff now, when he told me about the price of some stuff back then. A cup of tea or coffee used to cost them 3 paise. A pack of beedi cost 1 paise, while a Wills cigarette was a luxurious item, costing 15 paise. The salary of their office clerk was Rs.20, while the manager earned up to Rs.500. They had their own ambassador car, which would be equivalent to owning a Mercedes Benz today.

I was visually transported back to that era, but unfortunately that vision cannot be reproduced here in the blog. For one, I couldn’t get any photographs of those days from him, and secondly, I don’t have the patience to try and create that visual impact through my words.