End of chavanni....alias chaarane....alias 25 paise.

Effective 1st july... 25 paise coins officially went out of circulation.
of course they were out unofficially long ago with even beggers refusing to accept them.

To me it marks end of an era. of course this is not the first set of coins to go out... 5,10and 20 paise coin also went out of circulation since my birth... but they did not matter that much since they had already lost  their value by the time i got some currency in my tiny hands...

Most revered memory for 25 paise so far is the parle kisme chocolate... in red wrapper. other things include small packet of papermints... and sugar candies...5 for 25 paise :-)

For years I have been hearing from my father and many others from the grandpa generation about how a lot lot many things could be purchased in a single rupee... and entire household would run on mere 100 rupees and so on... now I also have something to say about 25 paise to my daughter :-)

One interesting thing is that still fractions of a rupee are recognised  with names of their colonial era equivalents. chavanni in hindi or charane in marathi both refer to "4 aana".
Back from the days when a rupee was made up of "16 aana". Its still common to say "16 aana sach"  meaning complete truth. or a movie " aamdani atthani kharcha rupiah" referring again to "8 aana".
or the referance to "chavanni kam hain" when indicating that someone is stupid.

Even when out of official circulation.... chavanni will definately remain part of our collective wisdom and memories in man ways.