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| Sunday, 19 January 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Nostalgia for the days that were The war or the devolution of power, 'Citizen Perera', doesn't bother what matters to him is the fast dwindling power of the rupee! With cost of living for ever on the upward trend, rapidly ageing Perera's mind is so full of problems and close to exploding limits. So, it is no wonder at all that he ponders over the good old days when a bottle of whisky was far cheaper than a bottle of plain soda these days. for, three rupees and sixty-five cents was the price of a full bottle of whisky. Like from the pages of Ripley's "Believe it or not", a plate of liver would have cost you just twenty-five cents; even a spoonful of gravy would have cost you very much more today. And eight rupees would have been the cost of that gold ring..... for better or for worse! Yes, indeed, those were the good old days when the finest building in the capital was the General Post Office and the finest street that in which it was situated, when Pettah abounded in rice dealers conspicuous by the scantiness of their attire and the provision shops were full and the buying power of the rupee was amazingly incredible! Dinner and room: Rs. 4 Hubert Cameron Patenson, an English planter who had taken up duties on a tea estate referred to as tea garden then, spent a restful night at the prestigious Bandarawela Hotel and all he had to pay for his sumptuous dinner and room was only four rupees! On the following day i.e. 10.11.09, his bill was made up of the charges in respect of an 'Early Tea' priced at Re 1.25 plus a 1 1/2 brandy at 80 cents; while a later breakfast had cost just one rupee and fifty cents. The bill also included half a whisky at 25 cents with half a soda at 10 cents; a pint of beer for fifty cents; followed by four more brandies that had amounted to only two rupees! The grand total of this bill is what one would dole out for the cheapest cigarette this day. 64 measures samba rice: Rs. 10.25 On October 20, 1909, a planter from Kabaragolla in Maturata, addressing a letter to Mr. M. J. Nalawangsa of Gonakele, in acknowledgement, offered him a clerk's billet on a salary of Rs. 60 per month. Why should Nalawangsa not have accepted this princely offer at that time of the last century when a bill preserved by my erstwhile friend Harry, dated 23.9.40 among other bills so methodically preserved by him records 64 measures (equivalent two 'muttus' then) of Samba rice at Rs. 10.25, at 16 cents a measure, and 28 pounds of sugar for Rs. 4.25, at 15 cents a pound? Harry's bill also indicated potatoes at 16 cents a pound, Bombay onions at 14 cents and red onion at 12 cents a pound, coconuts at 10 cents each, flour at 18 cents a pound, a loaf of bread at 25 cents and dried chillies at 37 cents a pound. While six bottles of kerosene oil had cost only Rs. 1.68, a tin of imported jam was just sixty five cents, and a measure of coriander only six cents. Harry just paid 43 cents for his half-pound of the best creamery butter at 40 cents a pound and half-pound of world-renowned Danish cheese at 46 cents a pound. Surely, Nalawangsa could never have lived beyond his means with prices so much within his reach! Of course, he could have even afforded the luxury of a "Special Triumph" bicycle complete with 3-speed gear, the nett price of which was Rs. 150; but he could have settled it for 12 monthly instalments of Rs. 13.75 each from the agents, Messrs. Brown & Co. Ltd. Car for Rs. 150 Harry set his eyes on a sleek beauty of a second-hand car, a Singer in Brown's Showrooms to become the proud owner of which Harry doled out in cash a mere Rs. 550 in full settlement. Subsequently, for a torpedo blue Fiat 509, he paid Rs. 150. Surely, toy cars cost very much more these days! For his work, a typewriter was essential and so Harry went in for the best from H. W. Cave & Co., a Corona-4 for a mere thirty five rupees. Tea: Rs. 25 per acre! It was about this time at the turn of the last century that the Assistant Government Agent, Nuwara Eliya, on Monday, August 25, 1924, at 10 a.m. at his office in Nuwara Eliya put up for auction, for sale or settlement, or to otherwise dispose of twenty five allotments of land situated in the Walapone Division of the Nuwara Eliya District. The upset price per acre ranged from Rs. 25 to Rs. 75 and from Rs. 100 to Rs. 1,000. There is not the faintest doubt in our minds that we have long said 'Goodbye' to those grand old days of yore! Human life is but series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece. - Vladmir Nabokov |
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