After a long time I got a chance to go
for a trip along with my family. It was a much needed break after a stressful
scenario in the financial markets that had been keeping the financial analysts
on their toes. Considering the time constraints and most importantly, the
economical angle, we decided to visit a small village near Nagpur where my
friend owns a farm and had arranged for sort of get-together. The plan also
included a visit to the Tadoba Tiger Sanctuary. But though I was on leave, my
analyst mind wouldn’t stop reflecting on the current economic situation and
making observations of how this was impacting things around me. And I was quite
surprised to see that while we in the large cities have been harping on the slower
than expected GDP growth, there were hardly any such effects that could be
witnessed in the rural places.
To narrate an incident, I stopped at an
HPCL-owned petrol pump to fill up fuel outside the city limits to take advantage
of the price difference and while waiting in the queue I chatted up a pump
attendant who said that there had been actually been an increase in sales due
to a significant rise in the number of two-wheelers owned by those living in
the villages. Our next stop was at a roadside eatery for snacks and tea and
there again I saw a huge rush of patrons. The owner admitted that business had
been booming and he had recently hired more help to cater to the increasing
clientele. He even proudly pointed out the new car that he had recently
purchased. And to top it, he had just bought a recently launched Samsung cell
phone that must have cost him nothing less than Rs 30,000.
When we reached Tadoba, there was
another surprise for me. The MTDC resort
was already packed. While those in the cities have been curtailing their
holiday plans, here all the cottages had been booked, indicating that there was
more than enough money to splurge in the hinterland areas. In fact, the staff
at the resort could be seen wearing branded clothes and accessories, one of
them sporting Nike shoes which he said had been purchased from an outlet in
Nagpur. Were those living in the rural regions immune from the effects of
inflation? I wondered. This turned out to be a regular occurrence and I saw men
in small towns spending money on soft drinks and expensive cigarettes and women
shopping to their heart’s content in clothes stores and at the goldsmiths.
A grocery shop owner close to my
friend’s farm said that there was a lot of demand for FMCG goods, especially
those priced under Rs 10 or Rs 15. In fact, he had just received an award from
a well-known biscuit making company for recording a good volume of sales.
Recession apparently did not loom large as a monster in these regions. In all
those tier 3 cities what I notices was all branded Air Conditioners (Usually
there were Coolers).
What it implies is that the ground
reality in the smaller towns and villages may be quite different from what we
assume in the large metros. Inflation has been hitting us hard in the cities
whereas those in the rural areas do not seem to have heard of it at all. Strange,
wouldn’t you say? Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to indulge in some reverse
migration from the city to a village.
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