Charles Haynes [11/09/08 00:48 +1100]:
"My colleagues told me visit Mac Donalads for Lunch and dinner. Is it cheap?"
Even in Hyderabad they have McDonalds.
Yeah but the McDs in Hyderabad and Bangalore are in the swankiest part of
town, with sit down service from waiters in bow ties. When a big mac
tandoori chicken burger is priced at about Rs.150, and the only customers
there are spoilt rich kids who turn up in flash cars .. makes quite a
change from people on the road, or pretty close to flat broke, who eat
regularly at McDs stateside.
That said, its bullshit. Grossly stereotyped bullshit - but strikes VERY
close to home for a variety of Indian software type.. lower middle class,
small town, poor communication skills, etc.
A lot of them do cart along huge amounts of rice and curry powder - if only
because they can't stand "foreign food" - even if they are "non vegetarian"
(I heard some telugu types working for Sify in KL bitching about how full
of coconut malaysian food was, on a KL local train).
They stay six or seven to a small apartment, cook in the apartment, save a
lot - I mean a lot - of a salary that's already pretty low, and then go
back home loaded with gadgets bought from the nearest best buy, chocolates
from a 7-11, and a bank balance that reads like 200..250k rupees ($5000
say) rather than 15..20k rupees.
