India, Nov. 29 -- Do you remember the days when a bottle of Coke would cost four annas? That's 25 paise in today's money. Even at the time, this was not an insignificant sum. I would have to cajole Mummy to buy me a Coke. And it wasn't just my teeth she was concerned about!

Those were the days when we would collect Coca Cola bottle caps. We'd been led to believe that if they carried the Coke bottle symbol, they could be exchanged for a gift. I collected several, but never got a gift.

Coca Cola is only one example of how our world's changed. Language is even more tellingly so. In the 1960s and '70s, rupees were referred to as chips and bucks. Money was called dough. Chicks was how we spoke of girls. And movies were dubbed flicks. This wa...