Saturday, September 20, 2008

Latin America-Brazil

This particular post is exclusively for people who never explored latin america. All we know is USA and Canada, but tis post will take u thorough brazil. Around 500 indians are living in Brazil, out of which 400 are in Sao paulo. There is couple of indian restauarnt where u can ve all celebrations(pongal, deepavali etc.,).

Its my pleasure to explain abt my experience and the culture of brazil

Let me start with the reason for my visit.

I visited brazil to gather some info and technology which they are using in foundry(a kind of industry which makes metal products). One of our company branch is in brazil and they are doing good business there. I suppose to learn my own company business strategy plus should some technologies used in the brazilian foundry (produce engines).

I was really impressed abt their technology and they are way ahead of India.

Geographical background of brazil.

The country is the biggest in size in latin America i.e south America.
Their capital is brasilia and its in the center of brazil. Sometime back rio de janeria is the capital of brazil and the development was only in the southern region and hence they moved their capital from south region to center to develop the country.

The city I have visited was sao Paulo, it’s the biggest city in brazil, infact in south America and the 4th highest populated city in the world. Next to this is Mumbai.

Sao Paulo is close to atlantic ocean and lots of industries are in this area.
My company is in Campinas which is 2 hr drive from sao Paulo.

History

I try to give a brief explanation abt the brazil history.

The brazil was discovered when portughese try to find the sea route for India.
Hence the language is portughese in Brazil. The only country in latin America which speaks portughese and all other countries including mexico in north America speaks Spanish.
Portughese is the only language spoken in brazil and its not like India where different region speaks a different language.


Marriage and sex Culture

As u know, Indians have different culture compare to anyone in the world especially on arranged marriage. Here the people used to date for 3 to 8 years and then they will engage together, also sex before marriage is commonly accepted here (They were surprised hear arranged marriage in India). The couples will develop a good understanding bt them and then they will marry.

Always u can c couples kissing each other public, it’s a rare sight in India. To me it’s more romantic than kissing gals in private.

Night life

If u love nightclubs, then the best place to live is brazil. U ve lots of nightclubs,discothees and night restaurant is available. Every corner of brazil u can find a restaurant which will be of traditional look like chettinadu restaurant in India.

People Status.

Its more like Mumbai. U can find slumps as well as rich people in sao Paulo. U can find street shops in weekends and black market etc.The cost of living is too high that noone in India can afford it. For ex: a cost of an object is Rs.5 in India it will be Rs.15 in Brazil.

Gals and boys dressing sense

I gone crazy on gals dress let there. Three things u can easily note in brazilian gals dressings.

1) I mean the dress are of low cut and low neck.
2) Low hip. There will be some 3 to 4 inch gap between their tops and jeans.
3) They normally wear dresses which wont cover below their knees.

These things u can observe from 1 year child to 60 year grand ma.
Also, all gals love to wear this kind of dress irrespective of their status (rich or poor).
Regarding ornaments, the brazilian gals r crazy on jewelries like Indian gals.

The guys are too modern and they love to wear branded stuff. Its again jeans and T shirts.

Food

Its similar to Indian food. They love to eat rice and non veg. Vegetarians cant live there because of their food items. I happen to eat beef and pork by mistake.
For non-veg guys, it’s the best place to eat non veg food.
There are lots of barbauqe restaurant in brazil, it seems noone is cooking in home.

My experience

I started my experience by seeing Rajni kanth in the Brazil airport in the same flight which he do came. I just introduced myself to him and he came to brazil for Robo shooting. Initially I didn’t noticed but there was a tamil slang and I found rajini locating his bags in the airport bag counter platform.

The first thing I does was changed some of my dollars into reals (1 real-26.5 Rs). Later we were waiting there for an hour for our drivers (like indians).

Next day went to the biggest mall in latin America called predo. I never seen a mall like that. It has two floors but it might covered 2 km in length. Since it was Saturday there was huge crowd. I didn’t bought anything there since the rates r too high.Wat to do???

Some how v manages to tell to te drivers to go for cheapest shopping place. He took us black market stuff area and I bought a belt for Rs.260 and some other stuff. I was impressed abt the gal who sells all tis stuff (she wears little more than 2 piece dress) and end up spending Rs.760 for worthless thing.

The next day was sales meeting and I gone there. But its all in portughese including the presentation. Few guys knows English and many don’t know English at all. It was really hard to communicate to ppl with difference in accent and language. All ends well and the next day gone to the business trade show.

Oops two gals who r really hot(models) were standing in our booth. One is blonde and the other one is of indian look. Also the show was started with beers. The people r drinking beers like water and I found beer is better than water(always they put some ice in brazil) in the Brazil.

Beer was opened to all the customers and Ashland spends drums and drums of beer there. The story didn’t ends here but Ashland provides the side dish too. I found all the nut varieties including cashew nut, badam and ground nut. Also they had some cool drinks too but no one preferred it. The show normally ends at 10 pm then v guys went to restaurant.

Visited a beach, not tat crowded due to chill climate. But i enjoyed a lot, they maintained the beach in gud form.

Visited arabyan restaurant. Eventhough it is a family restaurant. I happened to see belly dance there.

R u going to Brazil?

If u are going to brazil, pls read the following stuff

1) Take all things necessary for travel. For ex: Brush,paste etc.,
Never ever thought of buying these things in brazil. I mean it because these things will cost u like anything.
2) Buy a portughese dictionary and started reading about some common words in portughese. For example: water(aqua), belt(sinto), beer(cerveja), thanks(obrigado), tchau(bye) etc.,
3) Hug gals whomever u meet, its not wrong in brazil. only thing is u should know ur limits.
4) Try to open orkut account and get a frndship in Brazil(FYI, brazilians r using orkut like Indians). Pls note that the frnd should know english.
5) Take Jacket and raincoat, don thought of buying in brazil
6) Try to be close with them and then they will do anything for u.
7) Always u can contact my mobile no(99870 99727) for further details
8) Pronounce the english word clearly and slowly.

5 comments:

Lava (Sanskrit: लव) said...

Good overview..

Lava

Ashok said...

sure michy... ll sent u the picasa web link once i attach the pics..

பொன்மாறன் said...

Thats a real good article man..
I makes me understand how much you enjoyed[;)] Brazil.

You have done a very good observation. I don't know how long you stayed there. But its hard for me to do this much even in months.

I really want to visit Brazil.

obrigado :)

Paramakudi said...

Ashok Annachi,
I am planning a trip to sao paulo carnival.

The Orkut idea is really great. Other than do you have any local contact number someone you want me to trust.

Please recommend the hotel staying every day expense and more.

Thanks in advance.

Ashok said...

Hi paramakudi,

Use Orkut as much as possible and try to locate frnds in those area wr u wanna go.
Join in some english orkut community because very few ppl know abt english.

Find my contact no: 099870 99727, call me wenever free, i ll try to help u if possible