"How much was your salary when you got married, Grandpa?" -
The elder granddaughter asked.
Grandfather could recollect such an old memory, like it had happened yesterday.
-"Ninety-nine rupees!"
"Only ninety-nine?"-The younger granddaughter asked with surprise.
"Only enough for two chocolates!"
It was Grandpa's turn to laugh.He said-
"Everything was cheap back then
4 annas for lentils, 90 paisa for butter and milk was 30 paisa a litre..."
The elder one interrupted before he could complete the grocery list and said-
"Meaning there were only coins and no currency notes?
Grandpa said-"There were notes in the denomination of 1 rupee… 2 rupees…5 rupees…"
"And 100?"
– asked the impatient younger one
Grandpa said-"Oh there's an amazing story about the 100 rupee note!"
The granddaughters insisted on hearing the story
...and Grandpa obliged
"Those days we got our salary in cash...
...there were no bank cheques...
...My colleagues and I often thought…
...If we ever get to see a 100 rupee note, we will surely touch it and see!"
The younger one giggled
The elder one shut her up and begged Grandpa to continue
Grandpa continued
"On our pay day, we would carry along a one rupee coin...
...so that we could get a 100 rupee note from the cashier...
...but the cashier always gave us 99 rupees in change...
...Once, we had all queued up for the salary...
...when one of our colleagues came with his pay...
...Murli… yeah that was his name…
…Murli exclaimed that the cashier had given him a 100 rupee note!"
The kids were delighted listening to this part of the story
Grandpa continued-
"At the sight of a 100 rupee note, everyone forgot about their own salary...
...Instead, they swarmed around Murli and started touching the note!"
The younger one laughed again and the elder one asked-
"What happened next?"
Grandpa said-
"Then Murli rushed home to show the 100 rupee note to his wife!"
"To show it to Murli Aunty?" – asked the younger one
The elder one corrected her
"Murli was his own name...
...His wife's name must be something else, right Grandpa?..
...What happened after that?"
Grandpa said-
"The one-by-one, each one of us took our salary...
...99 rupees...
...No one else got a 100 rupee note that day...
...On our way back home...
...we saw Murli coming back towards us...
...He had lost his 100 rupee note on the way"
The kids were disheartened
Grandpa continued further-
"A while ago Murli was elated...
...but now color drained from his face and he looked plain shocked!"
The younger one chimed in-
"You mean Aeroplane?"
The elder one explained-"Fool! Why would there be an aeroplane on his face?...
Plain shocked… means he was very stressed, right Grandpa?"
Grandpa-"Yes. He was stressed…
… how would he run the house, what about food?...
...Then each one of us contributed 5 rupees from our own salary...
...and gave Murli 85 rupees...
...so that he too could run his house...
...Murli said he would gradually return the money to us...
but none of us actually took it back!"
The kids were pleased with the happy ending of this story
The elder one was thinking that Grandpa had such great friends...
while the younger one...
The younger one was trying to count 85 on her fingers
And after listening to this story...
...the rest of you can believe ...
that money doesn't make the world go round
The world goes round because of big-hearted people…
… people, for whom a 100 rupee note was just a piece of paper...
...and even today a 2000 rupee note is nothing more !
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