Holy cow! The rupee is 60% undercooked against the dollar?

The expansive food court at Chennai's Express Avenue mall had quite a variety of foods--from dosais and aappams to chicken tikkas to KFC and the likes. 

The prices were quite high for local conditions. 

A typical single-serving meal at most outlets was in about 150 to 175 rupees, and more.  At current exchange rates, about three US dollars. Soda or water is an additional payment.

Yet, customers were in plenty everywhere.

I typically don't think in terms of the crude exchange rates in these contexts.  I employ an exchange of fifteen-to-one, instead of the about 50-to-1, for the Purchasing Power Parity comparisons.(Note, for instance, the nominal versus PPP figures for India's per capita GDP in this Wikipedia entry.)

One can now see why I write that the prices were expensive.  If I used a 15-to-1 exchange rate, then on my PPP scale, the food court items were typically in the ten dollar range!

Prices at the food court were merely one of many experiences--now and over the years--that have always made me think that India is an expensive place for a tourist. 

Going to Ecuador, for instance, was incredibly inexpensive.  The hotel room I had in Quito--in its historic downtown area--was about $35, including breakfast.  There is no way I would be able to get that kind of a place in India's major cities at locations that attract tourists.

While there are a number of reasons, the one that appeals to me as the most significant one is also quite simple: there are two Indias, one of which is developed and the other is practically the Third World.  Express Avenue is one of the many that caters to the developed India.  The rates here are high.

And then there is the other India.

Even as I work with this understanding, The Economist complicates my life even more:

The cheapest burger is found in India, costing just $1.62. Though because Big Macs are not sold in India, we take the price of a Maharaja Mac, which is made with chicken instead of beef. Nonetheless, our index suggests the rupee is 60% undercooked.

If the rupee were to appreciate further, then it will be that much more expensive for the bargain-hunting tourists like me who face sticker shock in India.

Imagine the sticker shock for the Third World India, even now!

A New Yorker cartoon explains Brian Greene's multiple universes :)

Source and additional notes here

News about Hostess bankruptcy kindles memories of grad school and more

The WSJ reports:

Hostess Brands Inc., the maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, is seeking bankruptcy protection, blaming its pension and medical benefits obligations, increased competition and tough economic conditions.
The filing on Wednesday comes just two years after a predecessor company emerged from bankruptcy proceedings.

I first came to know about this company and its (awful) foods from a graduate course that Michael Dear offered.

I forget now what the course was about.  It was probably in my second year in the US.  Dear's class had very few students--perhaps about eight we were.

Every meeting, Michael Dear brought some kind of snacks to class.

Once, he brought something that I didn't recognize.  It was pink and fuzzy looking.

"What is that?" I asked.

Dear, who had a good sense of wit, looked at me pretending to be upset that I didn't know.

"You don't know Zingers?"

Chuckles from the rest.

"If by now you don't know Zingers, then you don't belong in this country."

We all laughed.

I bit into one.  That was also the last time I ever had Zingers in my life.  It was enough to earn my right to stay in the US :)

Years later, after I became a college instructor, I took up Michael Dear's practice of taking snacks to class, if the class size was small enough.

Sometimes, I even baked brownies and cookies at home and took them to class.

Almost always, I also described to students how I was continuing with a graduate school professor's practice to bring snacks to class and, of course, told them about this Zingers episode.

I did that until one cantankerous and obnoxious student loudly opined in class that I was bringing goodies in order to get favorable ratings from students.  Though, the probability is very high that she was mindlessly echoing her remarkably stupid faculty adviser, whose arrogant ways made me depart from the university's Honors Program.  It brought to an end my practice of taking snacks to class.  A zinger, of a different sort!