I organized an outdoor trip with INSEAD students. Went shopping with an Indian person. We splitted the list of items to buy. On his list was
-For 8 people and 4 days
- Cucumbers
- Butter
- Biscuits
We ended up with 15 zucchinis, 3 squared butter packs of 1kg each and over 25 biscuit packs.

Long pondering over such a discrepancy between my own purchased quantity and waste conscious shopping habits and this apparent abandon, I found the solution in a suggestion through a discussion with other Indian mates: in India, if guests manage to finish off their food, it is horrible news. It means that there was not enough food. In Western cultures, if guests do not manage to finish off their food, it is a very bad sign. It means that they did not like what they ate.