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An Indian woman living in Australia recently pointed out a quiet cultural irony: the ‘haldi doodh’ her mum made at home is now sitting pretty on a café menu nearby as an $8 turmeric latte. People are queuing for it—and she did too.In a video shared on Instagram, Smidha sparked a wider conversation about how many everyday elements of Indian tradition and culture are being rebranded as luxury commodities abroad.

The $8 awakening

Smidha was surprised to see a long queue at an upscale café near her home in Australia. Customers queued around the block. She queued too, wanting to try the hottest item on the menu. To her surprise, it was a turmeric latte—the same ‘haldi doodh’ her mum used to make back home in India. She wasn’t enthusiastic about it then, but now the same beverage is sold in Australia for $8, and people are going gaga over the ‘golden wellness elixir’. The irony is inescapable.“Living abroad made me realize something that honestly made me a little uncomfortable. There’s a cafe near me that sells turmeric lattes for $8. People queue for it; I queued for it. And then it hit me. Mum used to make turmeric milk every day, which we used to run away from. Same ingredients, same warmth,” the woman said in a video shared on Instagram.

The value we never saw

This isn’t just about turmeric lattes. It extends to everything from handicrafts to skincare routines. For instance, the ‘chai tea’ people in the US rave about.The woman captioned her video, “How ‘too desi’ at home becomes ‘premium’ abroad,” and added, “We just called it gross. There’s a handmade dupatta at home that no one has ever touched. That same thing is now sold in shops here for $200.”The woman’s observation cuts to the heart of a cultural paradox many diaspora Indians face daily. “We don’t lose our culture to the West; we just stop seeing the value in it first. We call it old-fashioned, they call it gold. But I think it was the moment we decided yeh sab purana ho gaya hai,” she said.“Prada just called Kolhapuri chappals ‘luxury’… while we were busy chasing Birkenstocks,” she added.The video is flooded with comments on how many desi staples have undergone a similar glow-up abroad. “I have seen more yoga retreats overseas than in India,” one netizen commented. Many agreed. Everyday items are being rebranded and sold at a premium, and that’s no secret.