"I'm always anxious when I light the kitchen stove these days. I have to make sure our gas cylinder lasts for at least two months," a woman in India's national capital Delhi told a colleague last week.
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She cooks the day's meals in one go, as the family tries to make ends meet on her husband's monthly earnings of around 10,000 rupees ($129; £106).
The woman, who didn't want to be named, is among millions of Indians struggling to afford cooking gas cylinders - which use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) - after a series of price hikes over the past year and a half. The most recent hike last week - of 50 rupees (0.65; £0.53) - led to the price of a 14.2 kilogram cylinder crossing 1,000 rupees in some parts of the country.
Cylinder prices have long been a hotly-debated political issue in India, with opposition parties - including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party before it came to power in 2014 - routinely taking to the streets to protest against hikes.
But the issue has become even more sensitive after the Covid pandemic, which suppressed incomes, caused job losses and exhausted savings.
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Food and fuel costs have also been soaring - last week, India's central bank announced its first interest rate hike in two years in an attempt to slow inflation.
But the pinch on people's pockets is expected to continue as companies pass on high borrowing costs to consumers.
Experts say any increase in the price of essential commodities such as cooking gas cylinders at a time of high inflation will force people to cut back on other priorities.
