Then & now — a sea change

Brajesh Bhatia

I WAS recently at the Indira Gandhi airport to catch an early morning flight to Frankfurt, watching hordes of people rushing to catch their respective flight. I had reached the departure gate early as I did not want my hosts in Delhi to remain awake late. The first thing that surprised me was the heavy traffic on my way to the airport. Most of the roads were full of cars going in all directions at midnight. I wondered where they all were rushing to at that hour. Since I was early at the airport, I began observing people to pass my time and counting the number of women wearing saris — only two women, out of hundreds, in a span of two hours! I concluded that Indian women had discarded wearing their national dress.

Since I was sitting near a coffee shop, I was tempted to buy a latte. It cost me Rs 201. No doubt, the coffee was excellent, but the price forced me to recall a scene some 75 years ago, when I was just a kid of eight. 

During my school years, we used to visit our hometown Mathura during the two-month summer vacation, to get acquainted with our cousins. We would stay with my father’s elder brother. Every morning during our stay, he would give an anna to all children and we would rush to the halwai at the end of the street. Each of us would get three small jalebis and a kachori with potato curry as topping. It was more than enough for us to survive till lunch.

An anna was 1/16 part of a rupee, equivalent to six paise in today’s terms. The coinage was then Re 1, having 16 annas; each anna would have four paise and each paisa three pies. We could fill our stomach with just six paise. Now, a cup of coffee costs Rs 201, which would have provided substantial breakfast to 3,350 children 75  years ago.  That is what we call progress! 

I recall when India adopted the metric system, petrol used to cost 69 paise per litre and now it costs more than Rs 69 — prices have jumped almost 100 times. I wonder whether the income of people has increased in that proportion.

Now coming back to the other observation — sari-clad Indian women.

To my utter surprise, waiting in the lounge for senior travellers and persons with limited mobility at the Frankfurt airport, I came across six Indian women, all in their sixties,  wearing saris! 

My conclusion this time around was that the sari is still the dress chosen by seniors!