3135) Did You Know Series (89): Chal Basi Chavanni" ("The Four Anna/Twenty Five Paise Coin Passes away"):

3135) Did You Know Series (89): Chal Basi Chavanni" ("The Four Anna/Twenty Five Paise Coin Passes away"):

This is a memory from June 2011. It is one of the posts that I share on my blog from memory at the end of every year.

"It was the early days of my Numismatic Blog exclusivecoins.blogspot.com. 

One day I received a strange message on my email address that Sid Srivastava a leading Social Media TV producer, then working for STAR NEWS wanted me to contact him immediately as he was working on a documentary on the demonetisation of the 25 Paise coin on 30.06.2011. 

Initially, I thought it was a "prank" message. Intrigued, I checked up Sid's name on the internet. It turned out that he was one of the most popular, written about social media programme producers in the news media. 

Tentatively, I called him back on his mobile. He was very courteous and wanted me to participate in a TV show on the evolution of the 4.00 Anna/25 Paise Coin and its ultimate phasing out.

He shared that his team had printed out material posted on sites on the 25 paise coin from all over the internet, but when he read my post, he discarded all the other material presented by his team. 

One line on my blog caught his attention - "taking away the 25 Paise coins for melting into base metal was like puppies being sent to the pound" - which helped him to develop the story.

I was asked to send the key questionaire in English to be translated into perfect Hindi. His team immediately translated every question in Hindi and sent me the same, till both of us were satisfied that the questionaire was worded perfectly.

I spent the next 12 hours studying the questionnaire and thinking out my answers. After all I was going to feature on National television, with affiliated media in several countries. 

Meanwhile Sid redirected his team which was doing an assignment in Aurangabad to immediately come to Pune for filming my documentary. He was very meticulous about the whole matter. 

His New Delhi team went to Chandni Chowk, New Delhi to scout for four anna silver coins, but could not find any to put up on the show. He requested me if I had any silver four anna coins. He was quite relieved when I replied in the affirmative. 

I brought out a 1926 four silver anna coin from my bank locker, which proved to be a "showstopper" for the entire programme.

The camera team came in the afternoon next day. They immediately rearranged the "Vaastu" of our dning room, where the filming was to take place. I had to hold each individual coin in my left hand which was picked up by one camera for a close-range photo, while the other camera took long distance video of my talk.

Next, Sid had to figure out the presentation of the entire documentary - which began with Shahrukh Khan sitting in a long-distance coach and drinking a glass of water from a little vendor on the platform paying him a 25 Paise coin. 

The documentary mentioned the famous fued betwee Ashok Kumar and Kishore Kumar which went something like this " ........ Barah Anna" etc. 

The doucmentary then traced the evolution of the Four Anna Coin from a 100% Silver Coin before 1939, to a Base metal coin in 1947, later shrinking in size, till it lost its value. 

The 25 Paise Coin did its bit for "Social Forestry" and for the "Rural Women's Development Programme", but its time for usage was up. 

The documentary had two coin historians to give their two-bits and a munimji to add a comic relief, which Sid shared later was added because the youngsters did not know anything about a 25 Paise coin.

The programme was so well received that excerpts were flashed after every news item/programme on STAR NEWS throughout the day. It was aired the next day too on popular demand.

I received around 300 calls, including from my SBI friends from all over India congratulating me for a well-conducted programme. In several SBI branches, the show was exhibited on the Branch TV. Several persons/customers of SBI called me to tell me that they were taking their "chavannis" back home after realising the historic value of the little "beauties".

One customer from a Pune SBI branch called me to specifically tell me that he had brought five bagfuls of coins, which he was taking back home now on seeing my documentary.

I had become an instant star in my Gym. One lady instructor called me home to tell me that - OMG, I am seeing you on TV. Really amazing".

Sid was very happy with the presentation of the documentary. Several persons including from his rival TV stations called him to congratulate him for a well-made programme.

Busy as he was, Sid called me for almost an hour. The documentary was his "Magnum Opus". 

That was the last that I heard from him.

I learnt later that the TV documentary was nominated for and won the best prize in the annual competition, results for which were declared in 2012.

What did the show do for my blog?

Well, for one thing, the viewership went up considerably. From about 300 views per day, more that 3 to 7000 visitors come to the blog every day. 

Although the TV programme is long forgotten with the passage of time, the popularity of my blog has held its own ever since and has presently crossed 13.3 million views.