Recent iPhone price hikes are a stark reminder that everything that you require for a reasonable middle class lifestyle for a young person in urban India have seen steep price hikes over the last year or two.
Diet Coke used to be 40 rupees, now it's 50. 20 pack of Marlboro advance used to be 340 rupees, now it is 480 rupees. Whey protein isolate which you could get for 3.5K now you will need to shell out 5.5K per kg.
Decent Gaming Laptops which you could get for 80-90K now you have to shell out 1.5 lakhs. Any trip you plan abroad has also become more expensive by 10-15% due to the collapse of the rupee against Euro, USD, Pound, etc.
But the official inflation rate hardly registers these things and is still based on the days of socialist India with daal chawal roti kapda tier calculations. Actual rise in cost of living (if you are not a hand to mouth dehati) has become completely decoupled from the official inflation rate.
The craziest thing about World Cup month is realizing where you were in life during the last one. Shit I still remember watching my first World Cup game ever. A 4-year gap means your job, your relationship status, your friends, and your entire life situation are completely different, but you're sitting watching a random group stage game at 1 AM on a Tuesday. Football is a time capsule.
Lived in many cities in India and noticed one similarity.
- No proper parks in most of them.
- Not even one public library.
- No running tracks.
- No public washrooms anywhere.
- No proper parking areas in markets.
These are little things, but they will make you suffer a lot.
Aren't you guys tired of this country's mismanagement? Life is not supposed to be this difficult for citizens. It's not like this in other countries. Please stop defending the government.
Services sector is a SCAM in India
No one is properly trained, from automobiles to electronics, if a repair comes consider your product dead 💀
No one knows how to troubleshoot and fix things properly. Be it AC, Car sounds, Refrigerator, Bike … it’s just cheap labour, but not of quality or know the KNOW-HOW
🚨 Reasons Why India Has Less Foreign Tourists
• Dirty Cities
• Bad Civic Sense
• Unregulated Sector
• Ineffective Global PR
• Poor Maintainance of Sites
• Complicated Visa Regulation
• Cleanliness and Hygiene Issues
• Lack of Public Transport/Toilets
2010:
School Fee = 36,000/year
Salary = 50,000/month
2026:
School Fee = 2,00,000+/year
Salary = 75,000/month
Education inflation has destroyed the middle class.
Parents are not paying for studies anymore.
They are paying for lavish school properties, luxury campuses, giant buildings, marketing budgets and corporate expansion of private schools.
Education has become one of the most profitable businesses in India.
I have seen many developed countries build just 3-4 residential towers and leave the remaining land open for greenery, parks, walkways and public spaces.
In India, every inch is squeezed for saleable area. No planning, no breathing space, no quality of life.
We are building concrete jungles, not cities.
Dubai: 36°C
Riyadh: 38°C
Doha: 37°C
Meanwhile in India:
Delhi: 45°C
Nagpur: 46°C
Jaipur: 44°C
Desert cities are now cooler than many Indian cities.
This is not just climate change.
It is also years of poor urban planning, endless concrete expansion, disappearing trees, and zero focus on livable cities.
And still 18% GST on ACs.
As once said to me by @abhiwhy during a conversation
“The problem with upsc preparation is that attempting again feels easier than quitting”
Extremely well put why many aspirants keep reappearing
Because they’ve invested themselves so deeply in upsc preparations that revisiting it feels easier than starting anything new from the scratch