India's COVID-19 crisis jacks up cost of living, dying India's second wave of coronavirus has not only created shortages of oxygen, medicines, and hospital beds, but also of wood for funeral pyres, hearses, and crematorium slots Reuters | May 15, 2021 | Updated 12:12 IST Ashok Khondare, a 39-year-old vegetable seller in the western Indian city of Pune, had already borrowed money to pay for his sister's treatment when she died in a private hospital two weeks after contacting Covid-19. While trying to overcome the tragedy, he also had to deal with money problems that increased with his sister's death. The only available hearse driver charged 5,000 Indian rupees ($68) for a 6-km (four-mile) journey to the nearest crematorium five times the going rate. When Khondare reached there, there was a long queue of dead bodies and waits of more than a day. He agreed to pay another 7,000 rupees to jump the queue.