In neighbourhoods from Delhi to the Deccan, a grimly familiar tableau has emerged. Lines of anxious families snake around gas agencies, where heavy steel cylinders roll slowly along the pavement like reluctant passengers in an endless queue. The crisis is hitting the heart of the home and the heat of the kitchen. In restaurants, chefs trade worried whispers while glancing at their final reserves. Meanwhile, small roadside eateries that fuel India’s workforce are being forced into a corner-trimming menus, delaying service, or quietly raising prices just to keep the blue flame alive. Driving this unease is a global tremor.

The ongoing tensions in West Asia have disrupted energy flows and pushed liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices sharply upward-by some estimates nearly 77 per cent earlier this month. As India imports a large share of its cooking gas, the effects ripple quickly into everyday life. Shortages appear, delivery dates stretch, and the familiar spectre of black marketing lurks in the background. It is another reminder of how deeply daily life depends on energy that travels thousands of kilometres before reaching an Indian kitchen.

There are two ways to read such an event. One is the familiar way: wait patiently until global tensions ease, prices fall again, and the old routine resumes-until the next geopolitical storm arrives. There is another way to read this crisis.........

© The Pioneer