It’s almost one month here in Brazil and hence time to go back home. I bid goodbye to Lages, unfortunately at 5:00 in the morning, for I had my flight to Sao Paolo at 11:45 from Curitiba – almost five hours drive from Lages. Although, I had only a glimpse of Curitiba while traveling but it seemed to be somewhat more urban and bigger than Lages. Anyway, I boarded the plane headed for SaoPaolo, albeit one hour late. After landing at SaoPaolo I went to IBIS Hotel, Guarulhos and got myself a room for one night. Since I was extremely tired (I wonder if I could ever make it even near to the ‘early riser’ clique), I immediately hit the sack. I woke up in the evening and went for a stroll. Next morning after having breakfast I again went to the local central market nearby. It was full with people but the sun’s wrath was too much for me to bear and I returned to the hotel. At around 4:30 I was back at the airport for my next leg of journey to Bombay via Johannesburg.

The flight from SaoPaolo to Johannesburg was almost eight and half hours long. Since I was not so sleepy, I watched two movies – ‘Golmaal’ and ‘Beat the Drum’. The former was neither particularly humorous nor interesting. It was actually the latter that caught my attention. This film has received 27 film festival awards and paeans from critics and audience around the world alike. The film is based on a small boy named Musa, who is a Zulu boy in a small village of South Africa. All his relatives sans his grandmother and some cousins have died of Aids, which unfortunately, is thought to be some ancestral curse by the villagers and so entails some sacrifice on Musa’s grandmother. Musa, unable to bear the sacrifice of his favorite cow, went to Johannesburg to work and find his uncle. The journey and life in Johannesburg were very difficult for this young boy and at times even deadly. But his indomitable spirit never wavered and he came back home with truth and wisdom his fellow villagers back home were unknown of. The story then goes on depicting the life in the streets of Johannesburg – far from the surging economy inside the closed doors of skyscrapers and the spread of AIDS. A wonderful film with a wonderful ending just leaves you contemplating on several issues at the same time.

After I was finished with the film I tried to catch some forty winks. The fully-flat bed from South African Airlines (SAA) and their fluffy blankets and pillow were the perfect paraphernalia for that. Unfortunately, I thought the beds were too big for a short and thin person like me. Moreover, score of vacant seats left me wonder as to why should one suffer in cramped economy class seats when in that very plane you have fully-flat beds with large leg space not used at all? Couldn’t airlines come up with a better idea of boarding the travelers giving priority to passenger’s convenience? Why couldn’t they simply let – even by a draw of lot – to move some maybe elderly passengers or women to the vacant business class seats just for sleeping? I don’t think people will even mind paying some small amount for this ‘upgrade’.

The flight landed in Johannesburg almost in time. After landing I proceeded towards the transit area but right at the entrance one little black fellow with safety vest came to me and asked for my boarding card. After giving it a cursory look he asked me to follow him. Since he seemed very much either an SAA employee or an airport staff, I followed him. He went past the queues at the security/frisking zone and asked me to go through. He gave a furtive glance at the security personnel and let me put my bag without taking out the laptop. Quickly he took my laptop and asked me to follow again. I was surprised at the gesture. I was sure he was doing this because he saw the ‘Business Class’ tag on my boarding card. No, I was wrong. No sooner we left the security area I asked him to take me to the SAA lounge. He asked if I was flying economy or business. Wait a minute….. what was then this all about and what did you look at my barding card. He finally uttered – “Sir, mind you. I am not helping you for nothing” stressing on the latter part of the statement – clearly indicating his motive!!!! I said well I didn’t ask for your help. Furthermore I have all the time in the earth for my next flight to help myself pretty easily. He understood my intention too and quickly gave me my bag and left looking for the next soft target. I then thought of the film I saw and tried to figure out the purpose of his move and how he had his connection with the security personnel et al. Correct me if I am wrong but I think no matter how much SA has developed over the years, the corruption and fraud still looms large in this country – from streets to the airport.

Anyway, I forgot the incident and headed to the SAA lounge and I must say I was impressed. It's not very congested like Lufthansa lounge in Frankfurt or Munich nor is it short of… well.. basic facilities like Varig lounge in SaoPaolo. There was even a sports area for those sport freaks. There were also cricket bats hung on the wall with signature of team members from almost all the cricketing nations of the world. Internet, apparently, is not that easy to get access though.

After being in the lounge for some two hours I went to complete my last leg of the journey till Bombay. The flight to Bombay was full. So much so that even some overbooked passengers – with their – baggage were off boarded. This chaos went on for one hour after which the plane took off for another eight hours of long yet comfortable journey……….

It has been over two weeks here in Brazil but I must admit I haven’t really seen the ‘authentic’ Brazil. By authentic I mean the one with music and dance and drinking and fun – all night long. This is in partly because I am in Lages in the state of Santa Catarina where the culture is more European than Latin and partly because I am in the south of Brazil and that ‘authenticity’ I am talking about is basically a culture prevalent in the northern areas. In fact most of them admitted that they even have their own version of Samba somewhat different from what we normally know of. The contrast lies not only in these terms but also in the tone of their skin color and other such traits. The people in the south of Brazil, like most of the people in Chile or Argentina, are somewhat whiter in complexion with brunette to blonde hairs; whereas in the north they are somewhat darker in complexion just shy of being ‘Mexican Indians’. Moreover, the south of Brazil is cleaner than the north.

In spite of not being able to see a lot, I was able to get some feel of it. The Brazilians are very patriotic. They are really proud to be Brazilians and one can see the Brazilian flags almost everywhere – on T-shirts, footballs, buildings, tattoos, etc. They are even so more religious; so much so that I have seen more people saying graces before and after their meal than anywhere else in the world. They visit churches with religious fervor as well. They are also very friendly and play a good host.

Yet there is something that struck me quite surprisingly. Brazilians share their drinks more often than their meals with each other without any problems. Even while drinking they tend to take one sip each and then pass on the glass to the next one. They also do the same with the typical pot with herbs or fruits on the top and tea on the bottom that you can drink using a straw/pipe (Probably called Cuia e Bomba or Chimarão - see the photo). In fact once we went to a local kiosk to buy something and we saw that the shopkeeper was having tea from this pot when suddenly our client took the pot without even asking the shopkeeper and took a sip from it and even asked me to taste it – from that same pipe which everyone uses!!.

However, I had really some good and unique experience as far as meals are concerned. Our hotel offers buffet on Sundays. At first glance it will look like any other buffet but it’s not really so. Actually the guests will take whatever they wish and then their plates will be weighed and accordingly they have to pay – price for how much (in terms of weight) you eat rather than what exactly you eat. On the same note, last week I had a chance to visit a local pizzeria – Don Peperoni. This was so unique that even Italians might not have thought of being so. It’s a business strategy many people long for to conceive in their minds yet its well in place and working here in Lages. To start with, it's really a pizzeria and you get to eat pizzas. But how would you rate a pizzeria if you get to eat many types of pizzas instead of gobbling only one and that too when they are always warm? It’s just like that here. No longer than you took your seat, you will be asked to order a drink and the waiter will put a chip with red, yellow, and green faces to point to green indicative of eat-whatever-you-wish. The waiters will then come and go with different pizzas in the pan they are holding and if you wish they will give you one sector out of it. Perfectly made warm pizzas of you choice at your disposal without even waiting a minute after your arrival!!! After you are done with the main course you can turn the chip to point to ‘yellow’, which means dessert time. But wait. More surprises. They have sweet warm pizzas with toppings ranging from chocolate to fruits to dry fruits…….. the list keeps on going until you drop dead as you relish each bite of those pizzas. Oh just thinking of it is enough to stimulate my appetite. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera at that time but I will certainly take some snaps next time around.