Shopping is generally believed to be synonymous with the spirit of Eid. From buying new clothes to food items and other necessities required to cook Eid-special cuisines, the festive feel incomplete without meeting friends and relatives adored in new attires, eating food items untouched long ago due to various reasons, and sharing happiness with others. However, this year has people’s spirits low as their budgets have shrunk compared to their desires, or more precisely desires cum needs. All thanks to burgeoning inflation and stagnant income.

The markets are drawing crowds but most people concur that they have truncated budgets for Eid shopping. High prices of various articles and inflation have shrunk options for buyers. It is a safe estimate that items are now priced at at least 100% higher prices than they were a year ago. Inflation does not hit anyone hard if their income corresponds to its speed of increase. It has pushed the salaried class, a main component of the economy, out of the “circle of happiness” thus defying the basic definition of the economy – known by the name of “circulation of money”. Saddened to see their desires fuming, those who resort to the leftover market are not left with surprises as increasing import duties, all-time high currency exchange rates, and historic fuel prices have had their prices jacked up too. People say shouq has no price, but now the government has made them realise what the price of their shouq is.

As for the prices of food, every essential component of traditional cuisine is available at a price the whole meal used to be available at a year ago. Take Chicken Karahi, one of the most popular Eid cuisines, into consideration. The price per kilogram of chicken now touches the price of the whole meal a year ago. Beggars around the streets and roads are testimonials to the fact that inflation has not only snatched food from people. The cost-of-living crisis seems to have blighted pre-Eid activities. Most people are now left with an option to choose from food or home. What will this give birth to? Anything other than a crime? Moreover, the influx of beggars and fear of criminal activities also keep the cautious ones away from the buying spree.

Gone are the days when people could freely move about in markets and engage in Eid buying. Today, the atmosphere of uncertainty and economic meltdown have overshadowed the festive mood. Ramazan and Eid are often thought of as the time of introspection by people who, in the remaining 11 months of the year, cannot do much for the strata of the population that live under the line of poverty. These occasions provide them the spiritual impetus to take part in philanthropic activities. However, this time they are also under the pressing arm of inflation. Though these occasions see distribution of food at a commendably exceptional scale (add the government’s free flour scheme of 2023), I would like to conclude it with the words of an Urdu poet Naeem Ahmad Arshad, “O you who distribute ration on these occasions, belly needs food after Eid too”.