Petrol, onions, eggs, sugarcane, jasmine; name it, prices of all these are spiralling, forcing people to change the way they live.
Inflation. The word has transformed lives of Bangaloreans who are foregoing the health benefits of certain vegetables, shifting from cars or motorcycles to buses to reach destinations, and cutting down on entertainment in a city which anyway offers little of it – all because life and living is becoming a costlier affair thanks to that one word.
Petrol, onions, eggs, sugarcane, jasmine; name it, prices of all these are spiralling, forcing people to change the way they live.
The brunt of this is being taken by the not so well-off. Wants and needs are turning to luxury. The option often is in favour of doing away with them for cheaper ways of living.
H Saravanna, an autorickshaw driver and his wife Menaka are already experiencing it. They have done away with onions (costing Rs60/kg), which have been proved by a group of Swiss researchers from University of Berne to be carrying properties that can fight bone loss and osteoporosis, a disease which predominately affects older women.
Poultry eggs (costing up to Rs60/dozen) which have been found to carry healthy intestinal bacteria that keep away infections, too, are off the menu at Saravanna’s home.
Saravanna was dealt with a severe blow when fuel and LPG prices were hiked recently. “Earning Rs300 daily is not enough to sustain my family. I am also repaying a loan which takes away Rs2,000 as EMI for my vehicle,” he says.
Saravanna, Menaka and their two kids have decided to switch to cooking just one meal a day “and not eating even when we are hungry at night”.
“I am desperately looking for a one room accommodation now,” he laments his predicament. The better-off, too, are not spared, though it’s less harsh on them than on Saravanna.
“We have become very calculative before spending on anything, be it food or travelling or buying things. If the upper-middle class is affected, you can imagine the plight of the poor,” says Walter Joseph Lobo, a real estate agent.
“We are cutting down on eating out, movies… we save as much as possible. We think twice before taking an auto; instead walk the extra mile. We have cut down on little things like chocolates or hot chips,” says Suparna Naresh, a lecturer at Christ University.
These are mere faces in the city grimacing at the harsh reality called inflation.
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