New Delhi: For the past week, the menu at 50-year-old Sita’s home in southeast Delhi’s Madanpur Khadar Extension has been reduced to just one meal: khichdi and kadhi. Amid the LPG crisis, the family has been carefully stretching the last traces of gas left in their cylinder, unsure how long it will last.“There is very little gas remaining,” she said. “My son took the cylinder to the agency, hoping to get it replaced, but he came back empty-handed.” Her son Vikas, who drives a battery rickshaw, is the sole earning member of the family, while her husband is currently in their village in Uttar Pradesh. Buying a cylinder on the black market is simply not an option. “We cannot afford it,” she said.In the neighbourhood, however, having even a little gas left has begun to feel like a privilege. Just a few houses away, 50-year-old Phulkali and her daughter-in-law, Suman, 30, have already exhausted both their cylinders. The family has returned to cooking on a traditional chulha while they wait for their booked cylinders to arrive.Holding her two-and-a-half-year-old child in her arms, Suman said the situation has made everyday cooking a challenge. “I have two children. They need proper nutrition, but cooking on this makes it difficult,” she said.Phulkali added that the problem does not end there. “Even the wood at home is running out,” she said, pointing to the small stack of firewood beside the chulha. Acknowledging their advantage over others, she said they are still able to cook this way only because they own their house. “If we were living on rent, we would not even be able to do this,” she said.For many others in the densely packed settlement, even setting up a chulha is not possible. The lack of open space has forced families to improvise in whatever ways they can.Jyoti Pawar, 35, said she recently received a message claiming that her cylinder had been delivered, but nothing reached her home. In desperation, she borrowed a cylinder from her father-in-law’s house in Noida and brought it for her mother here. “But I am worried about what will happen once the cylinders in Noida run out,” she said.Elsewhere in the area, some families have started burning wood on their terraces to cook. For 64-year-old Shamim Begum, who lives with seven family members, the situation has become especially exhausting during Ramzan. “We fast the entire day, and then cooking over burning wood leaves us exhausted,” she said. Though she managed to get a cylinder on Sunday, the relief is temporary, and she’s worried how long it will last.One of the residents, not wishing to be named, said she had to cough up Rs 3,500 for a cylinder in the black market. Several locals said prices that earlier hovered around Rs 90 per kg have shot up to more than Rs 300 per kg.In a cramped cluster of rented rooms nearby, four families, nine adults and six children, share a narrow living space and the same anxiety about cooking their next meal. Among them, 20-year-old Shoaib, a pharmacy worker, has unexpectedly become the star. He is the only one who owns an induction stove. As others try to squeeze the last bit of gas from their cylinders, they know that Shoaib’s small electric stove may be their only option when the fuel runs out.“He plugs in the stove and cooks the food,” said his neighbour, Shaheen, 30, a tailor. “I have two children and gas runs out quickly. What should we do?” she said.A neighbour, Farida Khatun, 45, said, “I work at a hotel. They have started burning wood with kerosene to cook there. If things continue like this, we will also have to figure something out.”
