1 Cyprus Pound = 100 Rs = 2.54 $ = 1.71€

Above are the various conversion rates I have had to deal with over the last year.

No, its not a typing mistake, 1 Cyprus pound is equivalent to about 100 Rs. I wonder how such a small Island with hardly any industry other than tourism can have such a high valued currency. But, tourism is free money, and people do spend a lot of their hard earned savings rather extravagantly on holidays. Anyways, I had a very tough time when I first moved here, multiplied all prices by hundred, and had second thoughts before buying even bare necessities. Imagine my surprise when I came to know that the daily newspaper costs 2.35 Pounds!!! The annual DNA membership back home is cheaper than this!! This phase didn't last long thankfully.

Since we were paid in Dollars when I came here, the next rate to worry about was the USD-Cyprus Pound conversion. Now this has been extremely volatile. From 1 Pound = 1.4 USD in 2001 to about 2.48 last month. For my colleagues working here since before 2001, their salary converted to Cyprus Pound today is lesser than what they made seven years ago!!!! Anyways, it was a monthly ritual to wait/hope/guess when the dollar would rise and convert your salary for the monthly expenses. Some people even tried Credit Cards to outwit the Forex market while others dabbled with Hedge Funds.

There were 2 alarming side effects of getting habituated to Pounds and Dollars. Firstly, since Cyprus is so fucking expensive, I did all my shopping on the net and on my US trip last year. US is so incredibly cheap!!! I mean not only for electronics, but even apparels and stuff. And just thinking about the high prices in Cyprus, I have started to get carried away while shopping on the net (to have the items delivered to colleagues on site in US!). Secondly, I found myself dividing each price by 100 on my vacation back home and started tipping autorikshaw drivers!!!!

Anyways back to conversions, the European Union came to our rescue this January, and the Euro currency has been introduced in Cyprus. The Pound was pegged with the Euro at 1 Euro = .585274 Cyprus Pounds six months back. And I chose to getting paid in Euro instead of the dollar (having lost faith in Uncle Sam long back). Now I sleep peacefully not having to worry about any conversion rates, except twice a year perhaps when I (hopefully!) send some money to the motherland!