Dressed in decent clothes , nike shoes and a premium mobile phone he walks into the store and keeps staring in confusion. A lady dressed in black skirt thats barely touching her knees and in a super tight white shirt walks to him and asks “Are you ok?” The guy replies stares at the white shirt instead of her face and replies with a lost mind “I am good thank you, Can you please help with a birthday gift ?” The lady hardly understood but she managed to catch the words "birthday" and "gift" and replies “the cheap ones are that side, Do you let me know if you need any other help ”.
Who asked for a cheap gift , the guy never asked for one . But why did the lady pointed so ?
Welcome to the world of cheap bastards. It is the look of them that defines yes these guys look only for cheap stuff . They are none but Indians who travel to other countries on a deputation or even on permanent residence. The same guy who does not wear anything cheaper than a Lewis jeans in India, never even thinks of buying one Lewis jeans at onshore. Yes of course there is huge price difference , The one made in India and sold in India costs at max 4 to 5K INR. But the Asian made and sold in London costs around 120 GBP(10 k INR) . But NRI forgets that his salary too tripled/quadrupled and he is earning in pounds/dollars instead of paisa.
Do you know what is the fastest calculator to multiply and compare? It is the NRI brain. The moment NRI brain notices a price tag, it automatically establishes a super-fast broadband connectivity to xe.com and gets the currency conversion rate ,multiplies and compares the videshi price with desi price.
This cheap B never gets attracted so easily to a discount sale, because of regular visit to malls ,stores and extensive online product research , it helps him to maintain a database of products and their prices over a period of time. One day the cheap B was thirsty and equally hungry after a daylong outing. He walked to Mc Donald's food outlet to order a Meal Deal(note the word deal). The Mc D worker after asking him his meal to be a large or normal one and then asked him his choice of drink. He looks at the menu gets surprised to see water is not free , it is priced same as a Chocolate Milk Shake or big jug of Chilled Coke. He then decides ok no more water , thirst can be satisfied by a coke. MC D give him Coke.
But this was the cheap B I have seen in my first visit of onsite which was six years back. The cheap B got better these days . He left his cheap ideology half behind. Thanks to the exponential turnout of malls and shopping centres in India. The changed cheap B(ccb) now started buying expensive not so expensive but the mid-range stuff. He started hating Primark (a identical one to Big Bazaar) which was once a paradise. He does not visit Harrods just for seeing , but to make a note of the product and buy the same online for a lesser price .
He is now a regular visitor to posh restaurants . But still he buys only a coke at Mc D instead of water . He only buys stuff after more and more extensive research. The word deal always strikes chord with CCB.
"Hey man it is deal, I will buy it :) ".
I don’t intent to blame anyone here , I just have put the change in mind-sets of people, I have noticed over my onshore visits.
It is by Visu at malladiviswanath@yahoo.co.in or spilledmotives@gmail.com
I can see everyone of us in your story
ReplyDeleteGood going calling abroad Indian's as cheap bastards, After all if Cheap B wanted to spend smart and compromise his comforts for the goodness of his own back in mother land what's wrong.
ReplyDeleteBut the way I saw thigs were diffrent. Not a day I crossed OXFORD STREET or PADDINGTON or East HAM streets without a (so called Great Britt's or western) begging for a CIG or Pound. They Beg and we call them social and we spend smart or mise then we are called BASTARD's Wah!!!!!
Make's me remember an old saying, "Its always our own who pull our own legs!!!!'