The lure of the exotic
The lure of the exotic
A few years back as I was building my company 5Y in Hyderabad, India, I would get to the office very early to get an early start. My breakfast would invariably be in the buffet section of a close-by five star hotel. It was very expensive. It had the appeal, the charm, the brand. I would often find a big guy in town that I could shake hands with. I was the CEO of a flourishing company who was able to make a statement! As for the breakfast, it was alright… barely!
On a certain day, the janitor in the office told me that the food trolley guy that set up his little mobile breakfast shop each morning behind our huge office building served excellent ‘idly’. I did not want to disappoint him. I joined him the following day.
It was non-glamorous. It was borderline unhygienic. It was where a bunch of rickshaw pullers, maids and other blue collared workers ate each morning. It cost about 1/70th what I was used to paying. It was the most delicious breakfast I ever had!
I never went back to that upscale restaurant; the food here was too good to pass.
There is the comfortable and there is the high-end.
There is the satisfying and there is the expensive.
There is the functional and there is the exotic.
Strange that we go for the lure!
