A Rupee's story !!!

I was born in 1991 in bombay. I weighed 10 grams when I was born. I still weigh the same. Over the years I look the same but I lost some of my shine. And always My net worth was just one rupee.

The very first transaction that I recall is the one when a kind-hearted man gave me to his son on the day of Eid-ul-fitr. I was shining like silver that day.The boy clutched me tightly in his hands all through that day. At the end of the day however I went in exchange to a lolli-pop.

I was in the possession of many boys. Some were good enough to give me to their mothers. Some kept me in their pencil box. But some tied a thread around me and dragged me all along the road. I was frequently used by high school boys to draw a circle and that made my edges black. I was used to represent how solar eclipses occur. I was used to represent nuclear fission reaction. I was used to give a simple example of probability. However I was too small to represent Rutherford's atomic model.

I used to travel a lot. Today in bombay and the next in calcutta. I remember an international visit too. I had to bear all the seasons. I would be cold in kashmir, hot in rajasthan and almost always wet in kerala. I was 10 years old when a boy put me on a railway track to see what would happen if a train ran over me. I survived when someone suggested him to replace me with a 5 rupee one. I was thankful to the minting press for making me slim.

One day I entered the NIT campus. The first purpose I served in the NIT was to decide who would bat first in the cricket ground. I was often used in exchange for the 101 and 111 top-ups of Reliance and airtel. There was a place called TECHNO where I exchanged hands nearly 60 times in an hour between 10-30 and 11-30 pm.

I was touched by both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. I was licked by dogs and 3 year old's. I was the profit margin for a vegetable seller. I was the charity outside places of worship. I vanished under a magician. I was suddenly found in a bus-taker's pocket. I allowed people 60 seconds of chit-chat. I could fetch 15 marbles for a child. 2 of my kind could fetch 3 pani puri's to the teen. 3 of my kind would fetch protection for an adult. 4 of my kind would fetch a day's tobacco for an old man.


But now I am neglected. The two rupee ones seem to be everywhere. They are now circular and have taken my place in the geometry class. I don't fetch a newspaper anymore. I am not sufficient to predict your weight at the railway station. I don't know how many days before I loose my place in the bus conductor's pouch and the xerox machine's desk. May be in a few days I will not even be worth charity.


One day I fell in the hands of a 18 year old coin collector. He looked at the year inscribed on me. He loved the fact that both of us were 18 years old. And immediately I found myself in a dark box with a number of other coins. I suppose this is my death. And this box seems no less than a coffin. I have lost track of time since then. May be this is what it means to say '18 till I die'.


Everyone has desires in life. Even I do. I want to decide who would bat first in an India-Pakistan encounter. I want dhoni to take the call and I would willfully fall as per his wish. But it seems so far now. . . . . ! ! !