Bhimsen and Soobhowtee: “Eating octopus has almost become a dream…”

In New Grove, the daily life of Bhimsen Soneea, 63, and his wife Soobhowtee, 60, took on the hues of forced sobriety. Behind the doors of their homes, inflation born from international shocks has redesigned the menu of their meals. In the evening, dinner is a bowl of rice, a few lentils and a salted fish rougail.

What was once an ordinary gesture has become a painful exception: the purchase of fresh fish. “Before, it was affordable, a mainstay on our table. Today, it’s an insurmountable barrier,” confides the couple. The “pleasures” of yesteryear, those festive moments when shrimp and octopus garnished the table, are now a thing of the past. Today, they no longer allow themselves to look at them. “The shrimp are a memory and the octopus... it has almost become a dream,” breathes Soobhowtee.

To compensate, they had to replace fresh fish with salted fish or less expensive alternatives, substitutes that quell hunger but do not replace the pleasure of taste. At the supermarket checkout, the moment of truth is sometimes cruel. They sometimes have to put an item back because the total exceeds the limits of a budget that is no longer stretching.

We eat the bare minimum so that everyone can have something on their plate”

For Bhimsen and Soobhowtee, family solidarity comes before their own nutrition. They never hesitate to reduce their portions of proteins, such as meat or chicken, to ensure that their children can have cereals or dairy products, essential for their growth. “We eat the bare minimum so that everyone can have something on their plate,” they explain.

This constant deprivation is not without consequences. The couple admits to feeling a deep fatigue, that of living by limiting themselves to the bare necessities, without ever being able to let their guard down. If the children do not complain, the attentive eye of the parents sometimes notices this lack of energy, this little sparkle less in their eyes. For them, there is no longer a Sunday break. The weekend meal is no longer this enchanted parenthesis, it is an extension of the same daily struggle.

Faced with this impasse, the Soneea couple refuses to give up. Their tip? Hard work and a fierce fight against waste. Every rupee is counted, every leftover food is valued. Above all, they turned towards the land. By planting their own vegetables for personal consumption, they are trying to regain some control over their lives and reduce their expenses.

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