Raju's Mummy Bhindi Index

Bhindi roughly two-and-a-half-folded between 2009 and 2025. Food prices generally rose faster — the food CPI is up nearer to two-and-four-fifths — so the vegetable she named was not the outlier. It slightly underperformed the basket it belongs to.

Deflate the series by headline CPI and bhindi is close to flat, marginally cheaper in real terms than it was when the film released. Against income it is clearly cheaper: per-capita income grew about four-and-a-half-fold over the same years, which is faster than either food line.

So was she economically correct? On the direction, entirely. On the specific vegetable, less so — and the reason the complaint still lands is that an annual average erases the thing she was actually reacting to. Bhindi swings 40–60% inside a single year. Nobody experiences the annual mean; they experience the July print. That gap between a smooth series and a lived price is the most useful thing this index has to say.