Shave and a Haircut...2 bits

I wanted to give you an idea of costs here in Mumbai.  Over the weekend, Ambar did have a shave and a hair cut (and a bit of a head massage) - all for 80 Rupees.  That, with the rupee hovering around $.02.  Yes, that's right; he  was charged $1.60 for his shave, hair cut, and head massage - and in a barber shop, not in a stall on the side of the road.  He was generous with his tip, he gave 25%,  leaving him with $2.00 less in his wallet.!  Supercuts - watch out!

A few other examples of things that are amazing;y inexpensive here -

• Sam's roller bag - canvas restitched on the length of one side - Rs 25 = 50 cents
• Alter my Indian tunic to make it a bit shorter - cut and hem - Rs 20 = 40 cents
• Having shoes polished - by cobbler on side of the street - Rs 10 = 20 cents
• a 15 minute taxi ride - Rs 100 = $2.00, in an autorickshaw - Rs 50 = $1.00
• made-to-order shirt with covered buttons - Rs 600 = $12.00 for labor
• A dozen bananas - Rs 40 = 80 cents
• Our cook, Tina, bought a nice big head of cauliflower and felt she was overcharged at Rs 40 (you can do the math!)
• Two weeks of 2 newspapers (The Times of India and The Economic Times) - Rs 162 = $3.24
• Today's tour of the dhobi ghat (the clothes and linens washing area here in Mumbai) - Rs 100 for  two of us (picture below)

Dhobi Ghat

These prices exist in the city of Mumbai with one of the highest rental markets in the world, where i might pay:

• Rs 525 = $10.50 for a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal
• Rs 31549 = $630 for our electricity bill for August (when we were there for only 2/3 of the month)
• Rs 254,900 = $5098 for an Ekorness leather ecliner (I resisted) for our living room 

The general rule of thumb is that imported items are expensive, labor is cheap.

Another interesting aspect of money and life here is that we pay almost everything in cash.  As one of my acquaintances here said, "when you first arrive, you feel as if you are hemorrhaging cash".  I can certainly relate to that feeling.  We pay our cook and driver in cash.  It is quite common to give cash to your driver to have them go to pay your utilities bills (mobile phone, cable, internet).  

Delivery is quite common here even from the small shops (labour is cheap), so an oft-heard phrase is "Cash on Delivery".  I ordered a printer from a small shop on Lammington Road (a street filled with small technology stores) and they delivered it (probably by bike) to my home.  The delivery person refused the tip that I offered.  

One of the problems i have faced is that some vendors show up announced requesting payment (for bread delivery, newspaper delivery, milk delivery, dry cleaning).  They never carry change, and they never seem to offer to bring back your change, so it is best to have some smaller notes at home to give them the exact amount.  

Another interesting aspect of numbers here is that they break their numbers into Rupees (up to 99,000), then lakhs (100, 000 Rupees) and crore (100 lakhs).  Because of these quantities, they place their commas differently. 

So 354,000 Rupees is usually written Rs 3,54,000, read as 3 lakhs, fifty-four thousand rupees

And 123,000,000 Rupees is written as Rs 12,30,00,000 - 12 crore, 30 lakhs rupees

This isn't a big problem, but it is a problem in my Excel spreadsheets - it just does not understand these extra commas.  Ah well, perhaps I should just give up on using Excel...

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We had a taste of Americana the other day - Ambar set us up to have Monday Night Football - even though it was the Patriots game from Sunday night, and I had pretzels for the first time in over 2 months!   

Looking forward to the debate tomorrow morning (here).