Somewhere deep down, no matter how cool one appears to be on the surface, there is a mental calculator that starts ticking the moment one is spending in foreign currency.
So, when a 500ml bottle of water is priced at £2 one does hesitate for a fraction of a moment for the brain screams instantly: “Baap re, Rs 180 for a couple of glugs!” The multiplier effect is a constant bane for the first few days of a foreign assignment. While your correspondent usually manages to get over it in a couple of days, many never do.
Coming from an army background, one has to be all the more careful not to mention these prices to the father.
Especially not the cost of alcohol! Have a glass of beer at Olympic venues and you take a hit of about Rs 400. That’s the price of a crate of the stuff in the old man’s mess bar!