Respected Sir/Madam,

I remember I had vowed not to write to you. I know you must be very busy covering the chess galatta in Mahabalipuram and editorial problems like whether to cover the Ranveer Singh controversy with or without the photograph. But I had to write this, because it is a grave problem faced by a large number of readers of your esteemed newspaper.

You know, I am a retired bank employee with a steady pension. I and my wife Mangalam lead a rather steady life, some may call it boring also. But everything is rather routine. What we buy, where we buy , how much we consume etc all hardly changes.

But in the last few months, I am noticing that things are not the same.

This observation lead me to have some animated conversation with my dear Mangalam , this morning. Here is a short transcript of that conversation.

Mangalam (MB) : Old man, would you be going towards the market ?

J Bhoothalingam (JB) : No..Why ? Do you need some medicines ?

MB : All fine. We are running out of some items.

JB: It is just 29th of the month today. Can we not wait for a few days and buy with our monthly provisions.

MB : I know..We need some tea, biscuits, shampoo and a few other packed items.

JB: We did not have any guests or visitors this month. How did we run out of those items ?

MB : We have not consumed more. Just that the Murugan stores fellow has sent us less.

JB : I paid him this month like always through Google Pay. The total bill was not very different from the previous month.

MB : Exactly. These smart company fellows are playing with us. The prices of many items have increased but instead of increasing the price of the item , they have reduced the quantity. Our regular tea packet used to be 250 grams, now they are packing 200 gms only, so we have run out of tea. Good Day biscuit weights have been going down steadily. The small pack only has some 8 biscuits now instead of 12.

Were you not complaining the other day when I was away for some Ladies Club meeting that you made one packet of Maggi for yourself and it was too less. From 100 gm gradually Maggi packet is now only 60 gms.

JB : Yes.. One packet is too less and two packets are too much for one person. All cheats these people are .

MB : When I saw the price of a bottle of shampoo has gone up so much, I decided to shift to sachet shampoos. Some of my friends said, it is cheaper that way.

JB: I thought of complaining to you about these sachets. Too messy. For the little hair on my scalp, one packet is too much and I cant store it without the gooey liquid dripping.

MB : Now what do you suggest. Shall we buy those big big bottles of shampoos and other items from D-Mart. Apparently , prices of ths big packs are very low there. Lots of offers it seems.

JB: Oh, we will end up consuming lots more...Some items may just stay in our cupboards beyond the expiry date.

MB : I want my old packs back. Over the years , we had a good pattern. Why don't you write to The Hindu that senior citizens cant cope with the shenanigans of these companies.

JB: The other day, in our yoga class, Rao garu was giving some lecture on 'shrinkflation'. He was telling how companies were keeping the product prices same and reducing the pack sizes to cope with their input cost increases. I thought it does not concern me, so did not bother much. Now, I have to write.

Through your newspaper, I want to communicate to all the consumer products companies , please stop your smart packaging tantrams. We want our old packets back. If prices are more, we will shift to lower quality or maybe we will stop using that item totally. We cannot do calculation on a per gram basis. Too much cognitive load for an old brain.

Yours in exasperation,

J.Bhoothalingam