Few days back I went to Hyderabad, my home-town. As I had luggage with me, I took an autorickshaw from Secunderabad Railway Station to my home in Dilsukhnagar. I paid Rs 100/- to the autowala. Earlier, I used to pay Rs 60/- for the same distance.

We spent more and ate less.

The next day my wife took me to the market to buy some essentials. Cost of fine Sona Masoori rice went up from Rs 18 per kg to Rs 25 per kg. My wife wanted to buy 15 kgs of rice, but she ended up buying only 10 kgs.
From there we went to a vegetable market, where vegetable prices shot through the roof. Instead of buying five varieties of vegetables (leafy or non-leafy), we ended up purchasing only alu (potato) and pyaz (onion).

We paid more for less power consumption.

During my stay at home, we also received the power bill. It gave me a jolt. My power consumptions expenses went up from Rs 200 a month to Rs 500 a month. I was confused. We spend just 12 hours of our daily life at home. Which means we don’t use power for 12 hours in a day. Next, the AP Power Transmission Company resorts to unscheduled power cuts ranging from 3 hours to 5 hours per day. Meaning, we actually consume power for only 8 hours a day. We don’t have any heavy duty power consuming products at home. We just have one idiotbox - which we switch on for just one hour a day - three ceiling fans and three tubelights. Still, the power bill shock was quite strong.

Paying more for same education.

Last year we paid Rs 9,000/- for my younger daughter’s education. This year I am shelling out Rs 15,000. Last year I paid Rs 15,000 for my elder daughter’s education. This year, I am paying Rs 2.5 lakhs towards tuition fees alone.

Pay more and get less health care.

I am an asthma paitent. Earlier, I used to spend Rs 45 to buy one Asthalin inhaler. Today, the same inhaler costs Rs 86.

Working more for same salary.

Last year for 12-hour per day work my income was Rs 30,000 per month. This year, my per day work hours have gone up to 15, but my salary is stuck at Rs 30,000 pm.

End result

1. Working more for less income.
2. Spending more and gaining less.

Conclusion

Expenditure up, income down.
Tensions up, health down.

Obesity and lifestyle trigger knee deformities and orthopaedicians across the country are concerned over its growing incidence among short-structured and fat Indians. However, there is no cause for immediate worry.
The marvels of orthopaedic surgery are such that, today, patients can get total knee transplants done in a matter of two hours and start walking after two weeks.
Sixty-year-old Soundarnayi, of Thiruvarur in Tamil Nadu, is one such patient who underwent a total knee transplant operation on both legs three months ago at SRM Hospital and Research Centre. She had severe restriction of movement and varus deformity of about 15 degrees. She had been suffering with severe pain in both her knees and had difficulty in walking for the last 10 years. Today, post operation, she can walk and attend to her needs with minimal difficulty.
Soundarnayi’s case was unique, because she was not only short and fat, but also a diabetic. Surgeons are normally cautious about operating on diabetics. However, the doctors’ team lead by Prof R Dhanapal, Head of the Department and Professor of Orthopaedics, SRM Hospital and Research Centre, took her case as a challenge and performed the bilateral total knee replacement. This is the first operation of its kind done at SRM Hospital.
In the United States, similar operations could cost over $ 24,000 (approximately Rs 9.6 lakh) and in Chennai the costs could range between Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 1.7 lakh. However, the service-oriented SRM Hospital charges a mere Rs 80,000/-, which happened to be the cost for the implant and the hospital charges. Operations are heavily subsidised at SRM Hospital.
After the success of Soundarnayi’s case, the hospital has performed 17 similar operations with positive results.