Forced austerity marks Diwali celebrations

HUBLI / DHARWAD: There is no dearth in festive spirit, but rising prices has dented expenditures and celebrations have been downsized.
The increase in prices of essential commodities, onions in particular, and other household goods, vegetables, fruits and sweets and milk products, has forced people to keep their celebrations austere.
This apart, citizens have also cut down their expenditure on buying crackers, costly lanterns, expensive finery and other avoidable spending on grand parties.Some families have also given up on their annual tours, which are usually planned during Dasara and Diwali vacations every year.
Geetanjali Prakash, a homemaker, said: "The increase in prices over the past few months has eaten into our Diwali savings, cutting our festival budget by a margin of over Rs 4,000. Our Diwali budget last year was around Rs 15,000, but this year the budget is a little over Rs 10,000."
She added that they had also cut down their purchase of crackers by 50% and the guest list had also been trimmed to include only their neighbors.
Pratik Bafna, an entrepreneur, who waits for Diwali sale every year to buy new products electronic gadgets or upgrade the old ones, said that there would be no upgrades this year.
For Poornima Hiregoudar, a professor, her yearly travel plans with her family has been hit. "Every year, my husband and I would plan tours to coincide with the Dasara and Diwali vacations of our two children. But this year, we cannot afford a trip." Poornima, however, added that they bought more crackers instead to pacify the kids as this is the only festival that they thoroughly enjoy.
Inflation singes traders too
Manjunath Hurkadli, MD, Vijaylakshmi TVS showroom, lamented that business had gone down by about 30% compared to last year. He attributed it to inflation saying buyers have much less to spend this year during festival shopping."
But some traders have managed to make marginal profits by luring customers with exciting offers. Suresh K of Kandakur Agency, said: "We have made a profit of 10 per cent on the sale of home appliances by offering attractive EMIs and zero per cent down payment."
QUOTES
We have decided not to spend much on eating out and are instead preparing sweets and other eatables at home as it works out much cheaper. We are only buying some sweets that we cannot prepare at home.
Madhumati Patil | homemaker, dharwad
I had promised to buy my daughter a gold chain this Diwali and was saving for it since the beginning of this year. But plans were ruined by the price rise as I could not save enough. My daughter was disappointed, so I instead bought her expensive clothes.
Devendra Pujar | a government employee, hubli