Paint thy town...blue!

I was surfing through the pile of pics I accumulated during my Brazil trip and realize that there are quite a few gems in there.  There is of course the Rio trip which I haven’t documented for reasons unknown (Did I tell you I am lazy?).  And all the incredible graffiti. That was one of the things I remember the most. Shame I did not carry my camera around everywhere!! But here’s a small compilation from what I got.  

PHOTO ALBUM BELOW (move the cursor to the middle and click on 'View in Fullscreen')

Open publication - Free publishing - More graffiti

State of Miles

2 hrs 34 mins, GRU, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 0 Air Miles

That was nice. The lunch with friends but maybe I shouldn’t have pushed the time again. What if I didn’t get lucky with the traffic? The lady taxi driver did just fine though. “Voce e premiero mulher taxista” I told her in my broken Portugesh. Pleased her plenty I tell you!  Here I am staring blankly at another airport crowd.  Already missing Brazil. 45 more minutes to go before boarding. How am I going to deal with this multi continental journey?  The only book on me is Midnight’s Children and honestly I am not sure if I want to even start it. If the preface is any indicator, Rushdie is going to be about big words that make you wish there was a dictionary app in your head. Sleep. Need it. And Gatorade.

18 hrs 24 mins, JFK, New York, USA, 4760 Air Miles

Don’t remember how much I slept on the flight. Forgot to keep the watch in my pocket but I am sure it was decent.  Thank god I could just drop off my bag after customs and didn’t have to carry it around terminals till check in again.  Still good 8 hours to go.  The lounge is quite and nice. No bed though. The couch will do.  Rushdie is doing OK (I’ll say it for you..."Look at this little p@#$%...what credentials to judge Rushdie!!”). Lots of detail but I get the picture and that’s all that should count to the storyteller.

22hrs 15 mins, , JFK, New York, USA,

Oh that nap on the couch (leg up) felt good. May have come across as a ragged backpacker (or obnoxious Indian! or both!) to the few business travelers (trim and proper) who walked past but what the hell. Needed it.  Woke up dreaming about the Asian woman’s arrest I saw earlier today. Should check if Stoke did us a favour against Chelsea. That will be real cool.

25 hrs 58 mins, JFK, New York, USA

The best thing I have done this trip so far. Check into this lounge instead of going into the city and catch up with friends. I am not just talking about the cost saving but also the effort. Still have 24 more hours to go before I see a bed. The shower was fully equipped. Feel clean except my socks. Worst thing I have done on this trip so far. Forgot to pack one more clean pair of socks in my carry on luggage.  Not done. It ain’t stinking yet but I am conscious.

29 hrs 16 mins, JFK, New York, USA

What a great physical game of basketball!! Unbelievable 3^rd quarter against the Mavs by my fav team (only coz I saw them live once) San Antonio Spurs. Hope they can close out in style coz it might get really really close. Haven’t followed the playoffs this year.  Don’t even know which game this is. Got to hit nba.com once I get back home.

Found socks. Bought it. Hell now I can take my feet out during the flight without worrying too much!! Not that I smell …but 29 hours in the same pair can do it to anyone!! Better safe than sorry. 

I gave Rushdie a break. I think Midnight’s Children has to be another one of my projects like Fountainhead. Picked up Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Couldn’t resist it when I saw it in Hudson News. I ‘discovered’ him following a link from gaurdain.co.uk. It was an article about how a weaker girls basketball team did well in some championship and the philosophy of ‘press’. David vs. Goliath kind of thing. Brilliant it was. Have in the past few months read a lot of his articles and find them extremely interesting. Love the simplicity of his writing and the ‘logicality’ of his thought process. Had to buy this. It’s holding good.

Hungry?  A little. Probably just wait for dinner once I board.  Might catch a movie as well.

31hrs 14 mins, JFK tarmac, York, USA

The rain is really coming down as the flight rolls out onto the runway. Managed a side aisle with no one next to me. English newspaper with all the football action from the weekend. Not bad huh?

31hrs 32 mins, JFK tarmac, York, USA

Perfect!! The flight’s f@#$%^g delayed due to bad weather. Do we really need to add any more minutes to this crazy trip??

41 hrs 19 mins, Mid Air (must be somewhere over Europe or closer to Middle East actually)

Don’t know when but at some point during the night my legs hurt. I think I just stood up, stretched my legs and then napped again with both my legs up. Helps that the flight is empty.

Watched Crazy Heart. Uncanny similarity to The Wrestler. One a wrestler…the other a country singer…but everything else is déjà vu! Btw the flight was delayed by ‘only’ 45 minutes. Not bad considering it was really pouring ‘cats and dogs’ in New York. As long as I and my bags can make it to the connecting flight I won’t complaint.

45 hrs 26 mins, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 11610 Air miles

Maybe an hour to go before boarding my last flight to Delhi.  If there was anymore delay at JFK probably would have missed this connection or at least my bags would not have made it. I still don’t know if it will make it. It should. Can’t afford that to happen. This time I did not see the magnificent blue dome of this airport that I saw last time. Really cool. Wish I could just step out for a bit. Never really seen Middle East. Oh if only I could step out and explore the country in between connecting flights I would have ended up seeing twice as many countries. Lost count of the number of European airports I have been to. Never stepped out.

Desktops with metal keyboards and free internet access. The keyboard feels weird but heck it works. 2 in 3 people were on Facebook.  It’s amazing how many people around the world are on Facebook. And half of them are addicted.  I updated my status too. “44 hrs on the road…and one more flight to catch to Nova Delhi…beat that CLOONEY”. Obvious reference to Up in the Air. Only difference is right now I don’t see the sultry seductress in sight!! Most are covered head to toe. One thing that was obvious, last time I was here, was the dependence of these Middle Eastern cities/ airports on immigrants.  Pretty much everybody working here (except security) is either from the Sub continent (Indian, Pakistani) or South East Asian (Pilipino, Malay). Looking forward to Delhi and some unhealthy but spicy food!! Hopefully my roomie shows up at the airport. He doesn’t have the best track record to be honest. Need to buy daru for him at duty free.

51 hrs 22 mins, New Delhi, India, 13030 Air miles

Bed.

Oh the boys in us!!

Every self admiring, bloated ego, wannabe writer does this at some point. Write that quintessential ‘stuck in the airport’ and ‘starbucks’ post!!  Never dared to take my battered and bruised work laptop (don’t carry a personal one thanks to the weight of this monolith) amongst the cooler MacBooks that usually hang out at coffee shops but here I am with ‘genuine’ time to kill at an airport so why not? Besides making small notes about my multi-continental journey from Sao Paulo to New Delhi, I might as well catch up on Brazil. I have a word page full of ‘interesting’ topics that at some point I planned to write about and post on this blog.

We have all done this as kids. At least the boys did. Collect sports cards. As a 10 year old during the 1990 World Cup the value of a Diego Maradona card I managed to get with a 50 paisa bubble gum was nothing short of the excitement of lets say winning a million dollars as an adult. Not that I know how that feels! If I remember correctly I probably hadn’t even seen a full football game by then. Maybe some clippings of this madman making his way through five Englishmen. But the card was, in Mastercard speak, priceless.

20 years on I don’t know where that card is. Maybe Mom threw it away as rubbish. In fact I had forgotten all about the card until I saw the football card craze at work recently. Apparently it is still a big deal in Brazil. My Brazilian friend told me he has all the cards (which includes cards of players from all teams, team pics, national flags, stadiums etc etc...numbering close to 600 cards for each World Cup) from the last 8 World Cups!!!  Every afternoon (actually all day round) you’ll see 30 somethings trading cards at work.  In fact the cards are numbered and an excel spreadsheet is used to keep track of which ones individuals already have and which one they don’t. It’s almost competitive. Who’s gonna complete the official World Cup album first. Apparently some of the folks from work show up at Ibirapuera park over the weekend to trade cards with strangers from all parts of Sao Paulo. Super fricking cool, I thought. I in fact went out and bought 10 packs (0.75 reals each per pack.) of 5 cards each. Enough for me to trade and get 7 English players. I gave the rest to my friend who last I checked is short of only 25 cards to complete his album. That is before his weekend trip to the park!!

Not your usual conversation!!

“So what is your city famous for” I asked my new friend. 

“Famous for?” she smiled a little and hesitantly said “Aliens!”

“Sorry what?” I thought I did not hear right. It’s the traffic on Paulista Avenue.

“Aliens” she said again.

“You mean Aliens…like E.T. …Aliens??”  I asked again in disbelief.  When was the last time you asked someone what their city is famous for and got that answer?  I am expecting coffee, carnival, beer…and I get Aliens!! Phew!

“Yes.  It’s the most famous alien sighting in Brazil.  The only other alien case more famous in the world that our town’s is Roosevelt’s. Everyone is Brazil knows about the Varginha alien sighting”

“Roosevelt? The American President?”

“Yeah”

I grew up fascinated by aliens, like most kids I guess, but did not remember the Roosevelt incident.  Then again there was no Internet back then. Whatever! Right now this conversation seems unreal.

“When did this happen?” I asked expecting something from the 50’s or 60’s.

“96”

“1996?”

“Yes”

“Jesus that’s not too long ago…I had started watching X-Files by then.”  I pause a bit and then asked.  “So what’s the story?”

“Oh well…three girls saw an alien and lots of strange things happened that day in town.” she said and added as an afterthought “The Brazilian military came in”

“Really?”

“I believe the story…I saw the military myself”

“Wow…that’s amazing …I’ll look it up on Google”

“Yeah look it up” she said with a smile.

Corinthians!!!

Every Brasileiro's (yes that is what they call themselves…not Brazilians!!) first love. Futebol. Little background to the post I guess will help. Sao Paulo has three big teams who play in the highest league. Corinthians, Sao Paulo and Palmeiras.  Apparently Corinthians have the largest fan base (almost 40 to 50%) in the city and like in any other inter city rivalry these fans absolutely hate the other two teams. 

The Corinthians vs. Sao Paulo game was being really talked up at work.  The struggling Corinthians badly needed a win against the more comfortably placed Sao Paulo if they had to have any chance of qualifying for the Paulista Championship Semi final.  Paulista Championship is the intra - state championship and is different from the first division football we are used to watching in Europe.  We had told our Brazilian friend at work, pretty much on the first day of our project, that we need to / have to / absolutely must see a game here in Brazil and he suggested we wait for this one.  “I’ll take you as long as you don’t wear anything in green (Palmeiras colour)” he added being a ‘hardcore’ Corinthians fan. J Having no previous allegiances, I was leaning towards Corinthians anyway partly due to the two big names they had in their ranks. Ronaldo (the fat one! Highest goal scorer in World Cups) and Roberto Carlos (arguably one of the best left backs of our generation…arguably). I was dying to see one of Roberto Carlos’s legendary free kicks. That left leg can pack a punch even in mid 30s!!  He had scored a stunner in the previous week so was likely to take a few shots on goal at least. I kept telling my friend that Roberto Carlos is going to score. Roberto Carlos is going to score. Everyone, I guess, just found my enthusiasm amusing J

The atmosphere was fantastic even though the stadium was far from full. Once particular group of fans called ‘Gaviões da Fiel’were really boisterous. Apparently they are the largest group of ‘organized’ Corinthian fans in the city. I was told they indulge in some harmless ‘organized’ trouble every now and then but I didn’t see any myself so I am not going to hold them against that reputation!! Don’t believe what you don’t see. Especially if the allegation is against sports fans J Nope. Never.

I though I had picked up parts of the Corinthians chant as well during the game until I found out (embarrassingly a day later) that all I was saying was ‘Abacaxi’ (pronounced ba.ca.shi) which means Pineapple in Portuguese!!! Had a hard time explaining the goof up to our friend from work. Guess all the new words got mixed up and I created my own Indiano - Brasileiro - Corinthiano version of the chant!! 

The game itself turned out to be a classic. Corinthians nicked the game 4 – 3 in injury time thanks to an own goal!!  As this modest Nostradamus predicted Robert Carlos scored off the first free kick he took.  Wasn’t exactly his greatest kick ever but was forceful enough to make it through the fumbling goalkeeper. Fat Ronaldo was a pale shadow of his former self! Didn’t, at any stage of the game, look interested and barely made an effort to run. Which brings me to the age old sports question…when is a good time to hang up the boots?? Later.

Skye is the Limit!

Skye Bar, Sao Paulo

I am not huge on nightclubs. A television  with sports and beer will do it for me but I got to talk about this one. Syke Bar at Unique Hotel (the hotel is shaped like Noah’s ark btw…look it up!) has got to one of the best I have ever been to. Infact is by far the best nightclub I have been to. Period. Expensive but the view of Sao Paulo from the terrace is worth every single Brazilian reals (pronounced ‘hay-eyes’! No kidding…even the currency is pronounced sexy :)). I was looking up stuff to do in the city a few days later and on one of the websites one (what read like a well travelled) bloke was all about Skye. He kept raving about how he’s been all over the world but that Skye stands out as the best. I am not surprised. The terrace pool, the bar, the restaurant, the crowd, the ambience and the view.  Incredible! 

Lunch anyone???

So we come back after an early lunch and the office is like a ghost town…not a single person in sight ...I am not kidding…not one…and its 12:50 pm on a Thursday afternoon. My hung over ‘New York’ mind is thinking “what the hell is going on?”. We find out that apparently the whole office takes lunch at sharp 12:30! Every single one …for an hour…and they all go out…no lunch boxes and no fricking 'working lunch' business. As unusual as it is to see, the culture is easy to explain. The street below has great reasonably priced restaurants, incredible food, the weather is around 30 degree centigrade (back on metric units..YAY!!) and I can’t even describe the eye candy. Got to be a fool to spend lunch hour in front of a computer. Thankfully Paulistas unlike some New Yorkers (what?? I am being honest!) don’t have the ‘I work harder than you coz I even have lunch at my desk’ attitude!!

Sampa Sampa Sampa!!

Menina Bonita next to me on the flight. View of the pool from my hotel window (and I am not talking about the colour of the water duh!) Great Sushi and Sake. Lonely Planet Poor-too-gesh phrase book. Futebol on TV. Great view. Couch. Likely nap in the warm sunlight coming in through the windows. This is it!!