Sharing news and commentary about education, careers, investing, and life.

Sharing news and commentary about education, careers, investing, and life.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving from India!

Today is Saturday, November 24, and I celebrated Thanksgiving 2007 in India. Two days ago we commemorated our most wonderful of American holidays with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn on the cob, and rack of lamb.

"Now Rizwan," you might be saying. "Just hang on a second there. How did you get all of those things in India? Surely you can't just get turkey of all things in the Motherland!"

Well, let me tell you about this little shindig we had Thursday night. First of all, the food was all prepared by one of the best chefs in Bangalore. Although the chef's attempt at pumpkin pie was less than sub-par, the rest of the food was superb. And as for the turkeys: imported from Delhi, and I’m sure that even then they were imported from overseas. The turkeys alone cost Rs 250 per kilogram, or approximately $13.75 per pound. They ordered 20 kilograms, which is a grand total of Rs 5000, or about $125. That’s quite a bit of money for just turkey, especially in India.

But the fact that we had this fantastic food in India is not even the best part. The kicker was that we had all of this for free. Our Human Resources department put the entire program together, which was really fantastic. [Considering how incompetent and useless the department has been over the past four months, this seemed to be a reconciliatory move on their part, and it was much appreciated.]

Certainly a memorable way to celebrate Turkey Day in India!

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