List of the cheapest cities

Delhi and Mumbai are the fifth and third cheapest cities of the world, out of 134 surveyed, says a news report. This comes as a shock, naturally, to those who live in these places and have been led to believe that they lead a pretty expensive life. Particularly what with the global commodity price boom pushing up material prices and the government’s bleeding-heart employment schemes ratcheting up all kinds of labour costs.

With their considerable experience in ‘arranging’ surveys to deliver the desired results, many a Dilliwala or Mumbaikar might be tempted to conclude the survey which came up with these results was manipulated by some sponsor or the other. Such cynicism goes out of the door when the same news report reveals that the survey was conducted by a respectable organisation. But a scrutiny of the top five cities and the two Indian cities’ neighbours at the bottom yields a clue.

Tokyo leads the pack, followed by Oslo, Kobe, Paris and Zurich. One cannot readily vouch for Paris, but the other four are some of the most placid, peaceful cities of the world. When we come to the bottom of the ranking, giving company to Delhi and Mumbai are Tehran, Tunis and Karachi, the last mentioned being crowned the cheapest city of them all. Karachi gives the game away immediately, lifting all mystery over what exactly is cheap in these places jostling for space at the bottom of the list.

Life, liberty and human dignity are what goes cheap in these towns and what makes Delhi and Mumbai worthy contenders in the race to global cheapness. When crime goes unchecked, even after being widely reported and condemned, and criminals run rampant, life gets degraded, deformed, even extinguished. Life, in other words, gets cheap. Call it the lighter side of death.