Karachi is having real freezing cold winter weather at the moment. It means the affluent can show off their fine Kashmiri shawls, which are thin enough to fit into a fist and extremely warm and cost an arm and a leg or a king's ransom; women can wear their heavy silk sarees and men can look dashing in their elegant three-piece suits. They can also enjoy all the winter fare with narry a thought to the cost.
As for the rest of us, the high price of everything has more or less marred our enjoyment of the short winter spell. The cold will not last more than a dozen days but the high prices will. The price of eggs will come down a bit once the winter months are over, and also the price of second-hand wollies, but otherwise, once the price of something goes up it stays there. For the middle and working classes it is not only the cost of living but even our entertainment's and joys have to suit our pockets.
In this respect the present winter is the costliest winter for us. Of course the middle-class is doing everything it does to enjoy winter, but not to the full extent. Take the price of one custardapple; at Rs 60 a piece, it means one can afford about one piece per week. Guavas at Rs 80 a kilo means splurging to make jam or guava crumble is out, you just buy enough to eat. Imagine having guavas only occasionally. It used to be the humblest, cheapest and therefore the most widely consumed winter fruit. Now its status has improved with its price.
Over the years cold weather days have become less and less so that the frugal trend of knitting wollies has virtually disappeared. Most young people do not know how to knit. I discovered knitting had become obsolete when I decided to knit woollen caps for my aged mother. She once injured her head and though the wound has healed she says she feels cold at the injured spot. So she wears a cap. The caps she has been wearing are those manly, ugly readymade caps. I decided to knit her a few pretty feminine caps.
The first realisation that knitting was obsolete came when none of the shops that sold wool in Bohri Bazaar had wool. They were now selling plastic goods or clothes. There was not a single shop in the bazaar that stocked wool. I was directed to Tariq Road where one shop only, that sold cloth, had a single shelf stocked with wool. You would think they were selling a piece of gold rather than a ball of wool, the prices were that high. No wonder machine-made woollen garments sell well because a hand-knitted garment would cost two or three times more.
The second indication that knitting was obsolete came when I hunted through my books for a pattern. I found I owned only one knitting pattern book. I used to own dozens once, but I do not even remember when I disposed them, (probably to the ruddiwalas). I could not find a matching pair of knitting needles either. I remembered I had used knitting needles to prop up bathroom windows and stake plants; they are no longer useful for knitting. A model of a lancer on a horse sits in my study. It had lost its lance and I had substituted the lance with a thin knitting needle. Thus for years knitting needles have done service in many ways except for knitting.
The poor are paying more for an egg than even the middle-class. This I discovered while reading a newspaper item which mentioned winter price of eggs to be Rs 80 per dozen. I asked the housemaid what she paid for eggs. She said she only purchased one egg on alternate days for her ill son. She bought it for eight rupees. So a dozen eggs in Quaidabad bastis costs Rs 96. And that is the price for farm eggs. The price for a free-range hen's egg (desi unda) is Rs 12.
So this winter I will not be able to enjoy my breakfast of cheese omlette daily. Thus eggs have become another food item for which I must budget. What is the use of being healthy enough to eat eggs every day at my age if I cannot afford to enjoy my favourite breakfast every winter day?
In freezing weather I avoid bathing. Believe me (though nobody does for some reason) it is because of health. You see, I have a weak chest and if I am exposed to cold breeze after a bath, I get bronchitis or sinusitis. I am not a dirty person as in summer I bath atleast four times a day. (My kindly brother-in-law says that makes my annual average good). However, since the past few years I have protected myself by taking a 'flu shot. Like everything else, the price of a 'flu shot also keeps going up and up. It is supposed to be taken latest by September. Last year it cost Rs 500, this year Rs 550. The flu shot is recommended for senior citizens. Senior citizens afford continuous price hike? Things meant for senior citizens ought to cost less, not more, but prices are hiked with little regard to public welfare. Affordability of essential goods is not given a thought by price control authority (it actually exists even though it never asserts itself).
Winter also means munching pine nuts, yoasted almonds and peanuts, walnuts and kashew nuts. Either forget it this winter or purchase a quarter of the quantity you used to buy. The prices are up with the stars in heaven, the nuts are so costly. The exorbitant prices of nuts is blamed on the devastation of flora in northern areas, another victim of terrorism. You would be a nut to purchase any nuts by the kilo as you used to do.
Would you believe it, the prices of second-hand woollens has doubled from what it was last year. The poor purchase woollens every winter. This is because they live in huts and last year's woollens become worm-eaten and unusable. The second-hand merchants say the prices have shot up because of terrorism, that is, they have to spend more on sending the woollens to northern areas. So Karachiwalas have to pay. Karachi is the victim of any kind of price hike, as you know.
In most cases the reason for price hike is not genuine. It is nothing but profiteering, as everybody wants to make a fast buck. But they can do it only because the government is disinterested in price control. So my advice is do not get angry with the merchants, go and wring the neck of any official you can lay your hands on.