In many parts of India, in most cases, Mr Foo Bar's kid will be called Baz Foo. So as people start calling their kids more modern names not derived from Sanskrit, the text you linked starts getting outdated.
I'm a little bit familiar with Indian culture; I think it's not that easy to tell the caste from the surname. It's probably easier to figure out if someone is Brahmin I guess.
Ha ha, you must know enough people from both sets ;)
I've found that vegetarian-ism is a stronger indicator than someone telling me they are Brahmin. Or, if they are somewhat practicing, their sacred thread is sometimes visible.
Everything except the student loans, yes.
If you have student loans you'd need to get a roommate (or two).
Source: I live in the Bay area, and got a job at bigco but a salary similar to 100k. Almost no education loans (under 5k), but about 40k of loans for parents back home. I paid it back in a year and a little bit more.