Living a lie

Compared to Paris, and many other places, Mumbai is very inexpensive (other than the rent, though I think I lucked out in that department). And so this means that I have the money to do things here that I would never be able to do in Paris or Canada for that matter.

I was talking with a friend yesterday who was absolutely gob-smacked that I had never had a pedicure in my life (or a manicure for that matter - though I did have those fake plastic nails put on once). Every week she has a manicure, pedicure and does waxing -- and someone comes to her house to do it!

And not only that, she has fruit and other groceries delivered. Her maid comes every day to do the cooking and the cleaning. I too have paid for maid services, but she comes infrequently and nothing really ever looks different (I can only really tell because usually my shoes have moved).

I have also been to some of the city's nicest restaurants (though some were for work). Nevertheless, in the ritziest hotels in Mumbai, the main dishes range from 500-1000 rupees (1000 rupees is about 15 euros). Which means that for me, compared to what I am used to paying, well, there is no comparison: everything is SO much cheaper!

And this has left me feeling like a bit of a fraud. You see, I have been a lowly student and living off of credit for the last year (and earning peanuts before that as a waitress) and so my lifestyle has become one based on frugality and the idea that less is more. I very literally buy clothes once a year during sales, IN CANADA, hardly ever eat out and splurge by going to the cinema (usually in the morning because it costs less).

So the culture shock is obviously enormous, in terms of the poverty and unbelievable change in how I live my life -- but there is also the shock of suddenly being among the movers and the shakers, and really for no reason other than I am foreign. I guess I should enjoy it, but for now, it still seems very strange.