Brazil's "Route to the Indies"

It’s really amazing how well connected the world has become.  And I don’t necessarily mean economically or even geographically. In fact I can get carried away by my current job profile and say geographic distances don’t really matter (only coz my company pays for my ticket J) but surely its has become a lot more affordable to a lot more people to say the least.  But what is really amazing is how well the world is integrating culturally.  I for example just finished watching a Japanese and an Iranian movie thanks to torrents. Had Vietnamese ‘Pho’ soup for lunch and am craving some Brazilian “café” to set right this lazy afternoon in Brussels. And in every big city in every corner of the world people are discovering a culture other than their own in restaurants, television, movies and of course the Internet.  In fact I’ll stick my neck out and say that there is not so much of a cultural difference around the big cities of the world especially if you come from middle class families (and above…lucky B@#$%^&s! J).  You grow up watching the same silly stuff on T.V, playing the same video games, listening to pretty much the same tried and tested bands from America or UK and spend half a day checking out other people’s profiles on Facebook.  A young kid growing up in a nice apartment building in Mumbai for example probably has more in common with someone from Johannesburg or Auckland than let’s say some kid from Hanamkonda in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh, India (I just looked up the place in Google Maps…so don’t worry if you have never heard if it). You could look at that last bit as a negative but for now I would much rather ponder over the beauty of the ‘commonalities’. Now that the theorizing is done…here’s a story.

Here I was on Copacabana beach talking to my new friends and they want to know about the untouchables from India. 

“Untouchables?” 

“Yeah Dalits?”

As baffled as I was about their knowledge of the caste system, I went on to explain (somewhat untruthfully…if I am completely honest) that caste divisions are more prominent in villages and that most urban Indians don’t care about stuff like that.

“But where the hell did you learn about it??  Textbooks??” I asked worried that Brazilian kids are probably learning a negative aspect of my country right in school!

“No! Caminhos das Indias…it’s a soap opera on T.V.  Its in Portuguese with all Brazilian actors but shot in India.  They don’t let the lead characters marry each other because one’s a Dalit and the other's upper caste!”

“Wow” I am thinking. “What an original Indian story!” J