You thought only onions can make you cry?

The rising onion prices have been the topic of debate and ridicule lately. But it is not just onions that have been making people weep. Petrol prices, electricity everything is getting dearer by the day. We take the example of one family and how they are dealing with the price-rise.

“I had gone to the wedding of a fairly rich family in Andheri, two days back. The arrangement was five-star, the dinner was lavish and everything was as perfect as it should be. And, on the dinner table, the salad was limited only to Tomato and Cucumber. The Onion was literally missing from the menu. Wasn’t it interesting?” asked Devendra Karnik, a resident of Andheri.

His family of five, belongs to a fairly stable middle class economical background, something which can sustain pretty well in the ongoing havoc of price rise and inflation. At least, that’s what it looks like from the outside.

But even for Karnik family, which runs its own medical shop in Andheri, the inflation has put a considerable strain on the monthly budget.

“It is not that, only vegetable prices have so high and we are facing problems, but all the bills coming to your houses are rising day-by-day. The electricity bill, the petrol bill and whatever you ask for,” said Karnik.

The family of five, used to keep aside around Rs20,000 per month for all the household expenses. “We never had to spend all that money, we used to save money even. But from last three months we have increased it to around Rs25,000, since we found out that this amount is not enough,” he added.

“I do not know the theory behind price rise, but I do go to the market and see the prices rising by the day. And that is enough for me to say that, whatever is happening is not good. Onions are Rs70 per kg, garlic Rs320 per kg and today (Thursday) the prices for tomatoes were Rs50. These are the things which we eat everyday. How can we cut it out of our diet?” asks Asha Karnik.

Their son and daughter-in-law take care of the shop, while the grandson is studying in school.

“A normal family gets up in the morning and before anything else, has a cup of tea. Tea powder, sugar and milk is what we need for that, and what we have seen is that, prices of all the three have gone up. It seems people will have to stop drinking tea in coming months,” said Devendra Karnik.

Asha, asks a simple question, “If, in spite of being from a fairly stable economical background we face such problems, then what about people from lower income groups or people below
poverty line?”