Expats feel the pinch
If you thought foreigners living in Delhi have enough to enjoy a deluxe life here, you are totally mistaken. Even they are feeling the pinch of the soaring prices when it comes to making a living in the city. So, they are cutting down on their expensive lifestyle and making adjustments to keep up with inflation. Interestingly, in a recent global survey, Delhi emerged as the costliest city in the country for foreigners.
Agrees François Servant from France, who calls himself a pucca Delhiite. After all he’s been living is the city for six years, and says he knows the city like the back of his palm. Presently, striving to establish a business in the tourism sector, François has already tried a few other jobs. “For the past few years there’s a remarkable increase in immigration. Therefore, it is not surprising that house rents have almost doubled and even tripled. The same holds true for other commodities,” he says. “Me and my business partner now maintain a simple standard of living and are concentrating on our business,” he adds. Gone are the days when the colour of your skin would render a helping hand and make your job-hunt effortless.
Freelance photographer Simon De Trey-White from England explains that like many middle-class struggling Indian professionals he isn’t ‘rich’ and often haggles with a rickshawalla or negotiates with a fruit seller. “It’s true that I am being charged more by my landlord than my Indian friend, who lives in a similar flat. He thinks that I have loads of money being a European,” he says.
Agrees 26-year-old journalist, Atella Andre from Netherlands, who after her stay in Chennai found Delhi highly overpriced. She says, “I bargain because I have to take the auto daily. It would have been okay had I been here for a week-long holiday, or had my expenses were being borne by my company.”
Even though there are swish shopping malls opening almost everywhere, people are bearing the brunt of inflation. “I have over the years closely observed the economic boom the city has seen. The rich are growing richer, and poor, poorer. The middle-class has completely disappeared,” says 26-year-old Terese Loien from Germany who works with an MNC here, and has been living in the city for the past seven years. “I have stopped going out to expensive places and I am cutting down on partying,” she adds.
Post new comment