A p.r. agent calls me yesterday: “I’d like to share with you an exciting new launch I’m sure you’d love to feature in Lounge.”

“Oh, why don’t you e-mail me the details?”

“The new line features seven of the company’s most expensive products. It’s called the Seven Wonders collection.”

I was so caught off-guard by this presentation I paused just long enough to encourage the p.r. flack to continue.

“They are designed and conceptualized in Italy and Germany itself. All these products are the masterpieces of limited editions by various design houses…”

She rambled for some time before I managed to cut her off: “Just go ahead and e-mail me! Thanks!”

And then I hung up.

I turned to my colleague dumbfounded. This was a new low. “A p.r. agent just called me to brag about their new collection. It’s not based on how cool it is, or how well designed, or how old it is. It’s simply the most expensive things they could find.”

Listen, we tout expensive items all the time in Lounge. Maybe we don’t all need Rs8,000 sweaters to swathe our babies in, but at least we try to opt for items that have some quality to them other than their price tag.

My colleague looked nonplussed: “Didn’t you read Rachana’s article about the Rs6,000 butter chicken?” (Read it here.)

“Is this the new thing? Just boast about how pricey a thing is and everyone buys it?” I asked. “We need to get in on this. Let’s take Old Monk and put gold flakes in it. Everyone loves gold here.”

“The butter chicken has gold and silver flakes in it.”

In the name of research, I did a quick search to see if this trend had reached other storied shores. In a June article from the now-defunct US magazine Gourmet, author Rupert Taylor enlightens me:

There’s the $30,000 dinner, per person, at the Dome restaurant in Bangkok, consisting of scallops, lobster, kobe beef, guinea fowl, lamb, and pigeon.

The Ritz-Carlton in Tokyo offers a $18,000 martini. “It’s an ordinary mix of gin and vermouth, but in addition to an olive or twist of lemon this drink comes with a one carat diamond. There’s also a personal rendition of the song ‘Diamonds are Forever.’”

And then, my favorite, the “Frozen Haute Chocolate” at New York’s Serendipity 3: “The dish costs $25,000 and contains a blend of 28 different cocoas, including 14 of the most expensive and exotic from around the globe. This dessert also comes with 23-karat gold (five grams) and is served in an edible gold-lined goblet. The base of the goblet is circled with an 18-karat gold bracelet with one carat of white diamonds.”

So, I’m sorry to say I’m leaving journalism. I’m starting a competing butter chicken business. Only mine will be seasoned with diamonds.