When Lady Luck smiled at all of us
It was almost 46 years ago (around 1961 or 1962) when this incident happened. We were residing in Sriramulu Pet in Proddatur. One evening during summer vacation, we were all playing on the road. I think it was country hockey. (Cricket was yet to catch up in the interior countryside!). The hockey sticks were made out of branches of trees and the hockey ball was a bundle of rags folded tightly around a smoothened stone piece in the form of a sphere and sewed with twine. We were about 10 and the game was being played with all the enthusiasm and earnestness. It was like playing in Olympic Games. No quarter was asked and given.
Shortly after halftime, when the game was evenly poised, the umpire (a petite lad of 10 or 12 years old) shouted “offside”. The person in question was a fatso who did not take the umpire’s command in the right spirit. You see he was about to score goal and bag the Olympic gold medal! He whirled around with the stick raised high and in a threatening pose charged towards the umpire. Next 5 minutes was sheer bedlam. The game was abandoned and the Olympic gold medal vanished into thin air. Charges were hurled at the umpire and he was labeled as ‘traitor’ who was sold out for a pittance of one ‘dammidi’! (In those days, India, a few years earlier switched over to metric system but old monetary system was still being used. Dammidi used to be the smallest monetary unit and 192 of them equaled one rupee. Obverse and reverse sides of dammidi are shown alongside). The umpire vehemently protested that he was not sold out for a dammidi! The fatso was indeed offside and a cheat! The poor lad was about to be beaten when he was dragged out of the motley crowd.
He walked past the fatso and sitting on the ground huddled between the bent knees adjacent to a heap of stones began to throw the stone pieces helter-skelter. Presently he shouted excitedly and showed two annas coin (another old monetary unit) he found in the heap of stones. The fight was forgotten; the acrimonious animosity instantly giving way to excitement. In a sudden movement all 10 of us were over the heap of stones! The ‘umpire’ was literally thrown out but he held on to his ‘treasure’ of two annas coin with a smug smile on his face.
On that day, God Almighty had been extremely generous and benevolent! Each one of the boys except me could find some ‘treasure’ or other! The ‘treasure’ ranged from kaani to rupee coin! You should have seen the radiant smiles on all the young faces! However hard I tried to find my ‘treasure’ in that heap of stones, I could not succeed. I was angry and jealous. With frustration and dejection, I broke my hockey stick into two pieces, threw the pieces and walked away. All the boys clucked sympathetically.
I walked a few steps and with pouted face began digging at random with no rhyme or reason. Suddenly the twig with which I was digging got entangled with something. With sudden hope and anxiety, I began removing the soil and pebbles with hands. Lo and behold! My fingers felt something and I slowly lifted the thing. It was a chain with an oval shaped pendant. I yelled with excitement and jumped allover. The boys who were about to go home, stopped and gathered around me. I showed them what I found! They were dumbfounded.
I walked past them with raised head to home. The chain was shown to our goldsmith neighbour who declared that it was just a brass chain but the pendant was of reasonably good quality.
Now after these many years in 2008, I don’t know what happened to that chain and the pendant. But whenever I recalled that day I become dumbstruck about all those ‘treasures’ we dug out!
Here is a list of old monetary system of India prevailing up to 1960s
Three dammidis equal one bottu
Two bottus one kaani (Ardhanna)
Four bottus (or two kaanis) equal one anna
Sixteen annas equal one rupee.
The coins available were
Dammidi, Half bottu, Bottu, Kaani, Anna, Two annas (beda), Paavala (Four annas), Half rupee, Rupee
It was almost 46 years ago (around 1961 or 1962) when this incident happened. We were residing in Sriramulu Pet in Proddatur. One evening during summer vacation, we were all playing on the road. I think it was country hockey. (Cricket was yet to catch up in the interior countryside!). The hockey sticks were made out of branches of trees and the hockey ball was a bundle of rags folded tightly around a smoothened stone piece in the form of a sphere and sewed with twine. We were about 10 and the game was being played with all the enthusiasm and earnestness. It was like playing in Olympic Games. No quarter was asked and given.
Shortly after halftime, when the game was evenly poised, the umpire (a petite lad of 10 or 12 years old) shouted “offside”. The person in question was a fatso who did not take the umpire’s command in the right spirit. You see he was about to score goal and bag the Olympic gold medal! He whirled around with the stick raised high and in a threatening pose charged towards the umpire. Next 5 minutes was sheer bedlam. The game was abandoned and the Olympic gold medal vanished into thin air. Charges were hurled at the umpire and he was labeled as ‘traitor’ who was sold out for a pittance of one ‘dammidi’! (In those days, India, a few years earlier switched over to metric system but old monetary system was still being used. Dammidi used to be the smallest monetary unit and 192 of them equaled one rupee. Obverse and reverse sides of dammidi are shown alongside). The umpire vehemently protested that he was not sold out for a dammidi! The fatso was indeed offside and a cheat! The poor lad was about to be beaten when he was dragged out of the motley crowd.
He walked past the fatso and sitting on the ground huddled between the bent knees adjacent to a heap of stones began to throw the stone pieces helter-skelter. Presently he shouted excitedly and showed two annas coin (another old monetary unit) he found in the heap of stones. The fight was forgotten; the acrimonious animosity instantly giving way to excitement. In a sudden movement all 10 of us were over the heap of stones! The ‘umpire’ was literally thrown out but he held on to his ‘treasure’ of two annas coin with a smug smile on his face.
On that day, God Almighty had been extremely generous and benevolent! Each one of the boys except me could find some ‘treasure’ or other! The ‘treasure’ ranged from kaani to rupee coin! You should have seen the radiant smiles on all the young faces! However hard I tried to find my ‘treasure’ in that heap of stones, I could not succeed. I was angry and jealous. With frustration and dejection, I broke my hockey stick into two pieces, threw the pieces and walked away. All the boys clucked sympathetically.
I walked a few steps and with pouted face began digging at random with no rhyme or reason. Suddenly the twig with which I was digging got entangled with something. With sudden hope and anxiety, I began removing the soil and pebbles with hands. Lo and behold! My fingers felt something and I slowly lifted the thing. It was a chain with an oval shaped pendant. I yelled with excitement and jumped allover. The boys who were about to go home, stopped and gathered around me. I showed them what I found! They were dumbfounded.
I walked past them with raised head to home. The chain was shown to our goldsmith neighbour who declared that it was just a brass chain but the pendant was of reasonably good quality.
Now after these many years in 2008, I don’t know what happened to that chain and the pendant. But whenever I recalled that day I become dumbstruck about all those ‘treasures’ we dug out!
Here is a list of old monetary system of India prevailing up to 1960s
Three dammidis equal one bottu
Two bottus one kaani (Ardhanna)
Four bottus (or two kaanis) equal one anna
Sixteen annas equal one rupee.
The coins available were
Dammidi, Half bottu, Bottu, Kaani, Anna, Two annas (beda), Paavala (Four annas), Half rupee, Rupee
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