A few things doing rounds across the world – inflation, shortage of food globally , energy costs , maintaining mother nature’s balance , 2008 US presidential elections. These are some that seem to be high on the list currently.

India announces inflation rates almost every week – so much so that I don’t remember the last figure . Safe to say, it could be around 7.5%. At least, that’s what the Government wants everyone to believe. The methodology of measuring Inflation using the old Wholesale Price index ( WPI ) table is questionable though. But that’s a subject for another day. There is rising inflation in India and that’s a problem.

Adding fuel to this fire is the “lifestyle inflation “ that India seems to be embracing and rather unscrupulously. People tend to forget the line between real cost inflation and lifestyle inflation that arises because you have made major changes in your life ! – a cell phone can cost from Rs 3500 to a whopping Rs 35,000 . Going out with friends to a bar can cost Rs 3000/per person in one evening. Broadband at home, jazzy laptops and handhelds, branded clothes and accessories, going on a cruise for vacation, always flying instead of train journey, catering at home instead of kitchen cooking, a Rs 3000 beauty parlor visit …the list is long . These rather “new activities” that everyone seems to be overdoing is the lifestyle inflation that I am talking about.

It’s not about if these are good or bad –the extreme rise in today’s cost of living does not just come out of inflation. Look closely to your lifestyle and judge for yourself