Cutting across political and cultural boundaries, the latest round of fuel price hike has shaken and stirred the average Indian middle class family. The new rates are likely to take a heavy toll on all household budgets, but the middle class would be the worst affected. While commuting will become a much more costly affair for office-goers, housewives would face the music in the kitchen. The cascading effect of the hike in diesel and petrol prices is likely to make all essential commodities -- including milk, vegetables and food items -- dearer. Traders say that the prices would shoot up anew, making the life of not only the aam aadmi but all and sundry miserable. The service providers, like your neighbourhood dhobi and domestic help, are also unlikely to wait long before asking for enhanced payments. Agnes Jose, a manager in an FMCG company who also manages home, was in for a rude shock on Wednesday evening when the driver of a private school van -- who takes her daughter to the summer class -- suddenly told her that the transportation charges had been increased by Rs 50. "I was worrying about how to absorb the hike in the prices of cooking gas and petrol when the driver's demand hit me out of the blue," she said. Jose resides in Mayur Vihar-I with her husband Joseph, who works with UNICEF, and the couple's daughter is a Class IX student. Several middle class families said the UPA Government's action was "ruthless". Just a look at the platter is enough to make one realise that it has become costlier by over 80 per cent in the last three years. The increase in prices is not only confined to vegetable, fruit, milk, grain and cereal but touches other commodities like meat, fish and mutton too. Prices of almost all ingredients which make up a simple platter have gone up from Rs 5-7 to almost Rs 20. Processed lentil (dhooli moong), being sold at Rs 35 in January 2005, now costs around Rs 50. An LPG cylinder costs Rs 100 more than what it did in January 2005. An ordinary north Indian thali, comprising four rotis, a katori of dal, a serving of vegetables, a helping of rice, a small bowl of curd and a little salad -- would now cost almost Rs 30. With two adults and two adolescents having three meals a day in a house, the family would now have to shell out Rs 360 per day. The monthly food bill would add up to Rs 10,800. Besides, the householder would have to pay extra for water and electricity bills and service providers. An ordinary middle class home with an average monthly income of Rs 25,000 is bearing an alarming rise of about 70 per cent over what it used to shell out a year back. "We will try to make the ends meet by cutting down on clothing, outings and small but important demands of children. The salary remains the same since company honchos flaunt the Government's official inflation rate. I am surprised that nobody has realised that monthly family expenses have doubled in the last two years. Obviously, we cannot cut down on the education of our only child, which is also becoming costlier," said Agnes. It is the same story in most middle class home-makers across the country - the burden of increased price of LPG cylinder, which keeps their kitchen intact. The effect of the price hike would also come in the form of jacked-up freight charges, leading to increased prices of many commodities like automobiles, FMCG, fruits, vegetables, iron and steel. "The fuel price hike will result in a higher cost of transportation and will effect several other sectors which, all put together, will make the commodities costlier," said Praveen Khandelwal of CAIT. For any comments, queries or feedback, kindly mail