i call it fate i am working hard so whats stopping my lot from improving asks prasad rare luxury on sundays are re 1 or rs 2 chicken paws usually thrown away by shops the elderly woman cooks midday meals in the local school that brings her rs 500 and she also gets to eat there prasad says daily expenses on food has increased manifold rice increasing from rs 20 to rs 22 per kg oil from rs 60 to rs 80 and coal they cannot afford cooking gas even the government is feeling the pinch and midday meals no longer come with eggs it has five beds fixed to walls at different levels to make the most of the small room its worse than a handtomouth situation she admits voting for congress ram pyare ram for years but in the same breath concedes that their condition has consistently worsened with south city mall close by and highrises all around vegetables and fish from cit market and the lake gardens supermarket are out of bounds for the poor she said neither can she name her local tollygunge mla though his posters are everywhere on the walls even a few yards from her shanty here work is strenuous but money very little there is less work available now with the areas factories asked to shift earlier we ate fish or eggs twice or thrice a week now its once for sabera bibi 60 from kalabagan bustee on the upwardly mobile prince anwar shah road buying groceries is virtually impossible nothing will change no matter who comes to power her children walk 6 km to the relatively cheaper tollygunge market prasad gets rs 150 daily working as a tea company peon and avinash gets a monthly salary of rs 2800 as an office boy he like most of the 500odd residents in the ramshackle address works in a nearby leather factory sometimes if there is spare food i also bring some for my daughter and grandchildren chandrabala says sitting on a chauki on the footpath outside their crammed rented room that doubles as a verandah but the earnings are paltry she said rs 6 per kg the additional blessing for this poor christian family are eateries along this part of cgr road in kidderpore from where they often get leftovers it is evident that he is not bothered about the elections prasad cannot name his local mla or even the councillor does the election mean anything to them nor can they afford milk for the children grinding poverty eats into their daily lives with prices of essential commodities shooting up elections are a formality so theres no egg or fish for us either rupali said thirtythreeyearold rupali and her mother chandrabala mondol 60 together earn rs 1500 after a month of laborious manual work her son ansar ali drives an autorickshaw and daughter sayra is a schoolteacher now we save nothing from the meagre weekly earnings of rs 1000 to rs 1200