When I travel to a new country, my eyes are always peeled for a desi sighting. My recent trip to Brazil was no different. This is the second BRIC nation I’ve visited (with Russia and China left to go) and having heard about Indian Oil Corp., Hindustan Petroleum, and Bharat Petroleum joint venture earlier this year to start ethanol production in Brazil, I thought I might spot other signs of investment. At the very least, I figured I would come across a Sindhi shopowner (the joke goes that even if you travel to the moon, you will meet a member of the diasporadic community of Indian traders, of which my family is a part).
But, there weren’t any Sindhis or Indians to speak of in Brazil. At least, we didn’t see any. (Well, there was one uncle type we ran into near the Ipanema farmer’s market, but he turned out to be a Mallu from New York, visiting his Brazilian wife’s family!) 
We’d heard about Nataraj, the only Indian-run restaurant in Rio. It’s in Leblon, Rio’s most trendy residential neighborhood, and I figured we’d find a desi there. “It’s no good,” our New York uncle friend told us while he helped us shop for figs and sitaphal. “Don’t bother going.”
So we didn’t. (Now that I’m home, however, some scoping did yield a little write-up about Indian restaurants in South America here which pointed out that the restaurant is run by a family whose matriarch used to work for the British High Commission in Rio. “She had been doing special event catering for the embassy as a side interest and then one fine day she decided to open a restaurant – I’m glad she did. It takes courage to make a caipirinha with an indian twist.”
Dang. Missed opportunity for a good Sepia post. Next time I go to Rio, I’ll have to make it a point to go here.
So, Brazil is home to a multitude of skin colors, so it’s easy to mistake Brazilians for Indians and Indians for Brazilians, so much so that many times, people mistook me and my husband for Brazilians and spoke to us in Portugese. There were, however, a few exceptions.
In Salvador de Bahia, the northern city which was the first capital of Brazil, from 1549 to 1763, a photojournalist came up to us during the 2nd of July Independence Day celebrations. “Are you Indian?” he asked. “Yes,” we answered. “Can I take a picture of you? First time I’m seeing Indians in Salvador,” he said.
Wow. I felt like an intrepid explorer, though I was quite certain I couldn’t be the first Indian in Salvador.
I was proven right. Later that day, in Salvador, we were at Rafael Cine Foto in Pelhorino, trying to get our camera repaired–and ahem, negotiating for a better price–when the shopkeeper (whose English was limited) asked us, laughing, “Are you Indian?” (I guess we carry our reputation as bargain makers around with us, wherever we go!) Later, my mother mentioned that her once-in-a-while Brazilian cleaning lady told her that there are lots of Indians who own shops at the malls in Salvador. I guess I should have gone to the mall!
Despite my lack of desi human spottings, there was no dearth of Indian influence–mostly of the exotic India variety–to be found in Brazil. [A brief photo essay follows below the fold.] On prominent display at a bookstore in Ipanema, Mira Kamdar’s Planet India. Perhaps the pending free trade agreement in India has a lot of Brazilian investors thinking?
At Cafe Felice, a great lunch spot and gelataria near Ipanema beach, this guava lassi (they also had mango)– complete with a very authentic spice mix (like a chaat masala) sprinkled on top. You barely get that here in New York.
Brazilians love to shop. In Barra, a sprawling residential neighborhood on the outskirts of Rio, there’s a huge mall that could probably compete with the Mall of America in terms of size. It’s called New York City Center, no kidding, and comes complete with its own Statue of Liberty.
There were no Indians at this mall, But, inside was this stall, Tantra, bursting with incense, statues, and other decorative Indian fare. I checked; it wasn’t run or owned by a desi.
Yoga’s hot. Here’s the current issue of Prana Yoga Journal.
The “Father of the Nation” has a tangible presence in downtown Rio at the Praca Mahatma Gandhi. The statue there, adjacent to Cinelandia, Rio’s landmark cinema, was donated by India in 1964. [some great pics here.] In the historical Pelhourino section of Salvador, this “Gandhy” bag with a cute little illustration caught my eye. The bag was passed around during Carnaval and commemorates 59 years of peace. The man spoke no English so I couldn’t decipher anymore.
And, finally, I saw this guy at an evening service in a church in Salvador wearing a Shiva tee-shirt.
He probably picked it up at this tee-shirt stall at Rio’s famous Sunday hippie market. (Every city in Brazil has one of these fairs which actually began in the 60s.)
i was recently in argentina and brazil. didn’t see any other indians…except two tourists. we gave each other the cursory look and nod of recognition – the silent, “whatup.” but then again, there could have been more…don’t stand out as much down there, especially in brazil.
i did come across and walk into an indian store in buenos aires…a store with hindi, arabic and an elephant on the sign, no less. but, alas, it was run by two older, spanish speaking argentinian women, if you can imagine that. i don’t think they even knew what they were selling…
lol, the point of this post is to tell about your brazil trip, but you had to think up a connection to desi….. and amusingly, this connection turns out to be the fact that there there were no desis :))))))
I lived in Brazil for a while. In general, wealthier and more educated Latin Americans (and definitely Brazilians) have a faddish love of all things Indian—especially yoga/meditation, Krishna-consciousness, spicy vegetarian food, and souvenir-style trinkets and gifts with the “om” symbol. It’s all very consumer-oriented and commoditized. The southern city of Curitiba (which is more European than anything else) has at least five or six Indian/East Asian mystic-gift-shops with incense and pretty fabrics from India. It also has one Indian vegetarian restaurant (owned and operated by a Hare Krishna Brazilian) and one North Indian restaurant co-run by an Indian chef and his Brazilian wife.
Every once in a while I’d run into an Indian who’s working for a multi-national on temporary assignment. Most of the Indians in Brazil tend to be concentrated in the industrialized south of the country, particularly Sao Paulo. Indian pharmaceuticals are trying to get set up in Brazil, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the Indians in Brazil have connections to Goa/Daman/Diu in some way.
If you ever go to India, you will encounter tons of Brazilians at yoga camps and ashrams from north to south. There are a ton in Goa as well, for obvious reasons.
Admirable : Filhos de Gandhi
http://www.bahia-online.net/filhosdegandhy.htm Not : Proto hindu fakery, imported from the US, was alive and well in Rio when I was first there in 82. There used to be a Goan restaurant in Leblon in the 80s; not many Goans though. There have always been Indians in the Universities, especially in Engineering. Tabla enthusiasts will get a kick out of Gilberto Gil’s song “Rep”, with Trilok Gurtu http://www.amazon.com/Rep/dp/B000T00470 And it’s Pelourinho, meaning pillory.
I play Capoeira and have a growing interest in Brazilian music, art, and culture. And there is a large South-American community where I live; A lot of Argentinians and Brazilians often just assume I’m Brazilian and try to speak to me in Spanish or Portuguese.
Yeesh, as if I wasn’t confused enough about my ethnic identity …
i know this doesn’t count, but, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Brazilian The population of Brazil identifying with either full or partial Arabic descent is estimated at between 8 to 10 million people, most of them tracing their roots back to Lebanese and Syrian immigrants who arrived in Brazil in the early 20th century. The Lebanese population in Brazil, over 7 million descendants and recent immigrants is larger than the population in Lebanon. Today, only a minority of these Arab Brazilians still know and use their original Arabic language, most of them having shifted to Portuguese.
Oddly enough when I visited Sao Paulo the first restaurant I noticed in the Morumbi shopping center was called Ganesh. It was run by Brasilians in Indian dress 🙂
Narayan – Thank you for digging that info about the Filhos de Gandhi up. I knew there had to be a story there! Razib – Your wikipedia reference reminds me of a young travel agent we met who, once he figured out we were Indian, began to tell us about his Syrian ancestors. Does that explain the dress of the water vendor at Ipanema beach? See here and here.
I knew there had to be a story there! Razib – Your wikipedia reference reminds me of a young travel agent we met who, once he figured out we were Indian, began to tell us about his Syrian ancestors. Does that explain the dress of the water vendor at Ipanema beach?
yeah, i had a kid come up to me in middle school explain how he was 1/4 lebanese as if this was some bond between us (real native-born syrio-lebanese would not be caught assuming any affinity with kala south asians i think, but descendants are not so discerning about the racial rank order). in any case, i once talked to brazilian woman who thought i would be classified as “turco” in brazil, which is the term for arabs (they started immigrating during the turkish ottoman period, even though most were from syria). of course, i have a “muslin name” so it makes it more plausible than if i had a non-muslim name.
Of all places, I stayed at a hotel in Timbuktu (yes its a real place) owned by a Pakistani man. I didn’t get to meet him but I did get to enjoy some mango chutney in the middle of the Sahara Desert. All the hotel employees were ecstatic when I met them since I was “just like their boss.”
One of my fellow students here is desi from Brazil — his parents moved there and live in Rio, where he grew up. He blogs at Cataplum, but it’s all in Portuguese…
I went to Rio on a business trip couple of years ago. We had a private security guard in our van, who came up to me out of the blue and started speaking Hindi. Apparently he learnt it from his Yoga instructor. Go figure.
I think Indian culture is rare enough in Latin America that it’s considered exotic. I was in Mexico City couple of months ago and walked by an Hermes boutique. The windows featured massive Ganesha and Nataraj statues and showcased accessories in bold Indian colours (which overlap considerably with Mexican colours).
interesting. probably you were at this hotel owned by a very well-known incacerated Pakistani scientist!
on a side note, thanks for this thread. ill defintely try to visit the bric countries as well.
I wanted to eat at Ganesh in Sao Paulo last year, but was adviced against it by my Brazilian friends. After taking a quick peep inside I saw that none of the staff was desi so I did not protest. Amongst other things desi was an Anish Kapoor sculpture in the city center. There are not too many Indians in Brazil in general, and they’re very happy to meet one. The other good thing is you still don’t stand out much (Brazilians look like everyone… unless your 6’5″ like me 🙂 ) and for this reason Brazilian passports are apparently the most faked in the world.
Sandhya,
A carioca friend has just confirmed that the mall is actually Barra shopping (in Barra da Tijuca) and it has one ‘wing’ called New York City Center.
One Indo-Brazilian link that occurred to me was a line in the lyrics of Alceu Valença’s song ‘Olinda – Sonhos de Valsa’ that goes like this: “Olinda, tens a paz dos mosteiros da India…” (“Olinda, you have the peace of the temples of India…”)
Same carioca friend said that back in the 70s/80s among Brazilian musicians there was a great interest in India. He also mentioned the song Taj Mahal by Jorge Ben, who was once involved in a tussle with Rod Stewart because he claimed that just at the time when “Taj Mahal” was high in the charts, Stewart had been in Brasil, then returned home and composed “D’ya Think I’m Sexy” which Jorge Ben thought bore too close a resemblance to his song.
His lyrics go like this:
Foi a mais linda História de amor Que me contaram E agora eu vou contar Do amor do prÃÂncipe Shah-Jehan pela princesa Mumtaz Mahal Do amor do prÃÂncipe Shah-Jehan pela princesa Mumtaz Mahal…
Tê Tê, Têtêretê Tê Tê, Têtêretê Tê Tê…
(It was the most beautiful love story That they told me And now I’m going to tell you Of the love of the prince Shah Jehan for the princess Mumtaz Mahal)
It’s the “Tê Tê Tê, Têtêretê” part of the song where Bem felt Stewart had lifted the melody.
I know of a few families with roots in Goa who live in Brazil, common language and history I guess. There is also a cultural exchange between Brazil and Goa with Brazil representing a float in the Carnival celebrations in Goa recently.
5 · Another ABCD said
That is something I can relate to.
Yellow card for Pele. Pele – disagree without being disagreeable, disagree with the statement not the speaker.
Yellow card for Brown Champ – show a bit of class, folks. Whether it happened or not, leaving comments about it like that just drags the thread down.
Tried to go to Nataraj last summer when I was in Rio, but the place was closed even though it was peak lunch hour. Maybe it’s only a dinner place?
I’ve been to an Indian/Argentine fusion restaurant in Buenos Aires called Bengal, which was good. Apparently, the head chef is an Argentine who worked for many years at the Indian embassy. Unfortunately, the creepy Porteno manager/owner was so mesmorized by the fact that actual Indians were in his restaurant that he tried to use free alcohol and dessert to persuade my girlfriends us to accompany him to the adjacent hotel. (It didn’t work.)
I intend to go to Brazil this year or next year. But I need to get back into shape because no way I am leaving Brazil without getting laid. Also how are the prices for American travelers? I am sure , cheaper than Europe. But compared to our hotel and food prices?
I think Indian culture is rare enough in Latin America that it’s considered exotic.
i know it’s not latin america, but do remember that the guyanas have a lot of authentic brownz (and the carribean too).
complains to ref and asks for fairness, especially flopping by the opposing team, like this –
Praveen:
Channel 4 Anchor, Leandro Varejao, says “SM Intern has done a poor job, refing this game; the calls are clearly titled toward the opposing team. Its clear their has been flopping and I wont be surprised if the league fines some of the players. TheBrownChamp, the star player of FC Santa Maria, is getting abused and tackled ruthlessly and no calls have been made. I’ll be suprised if he refs anymore games this season.”
😉
What’s with all the Argentine stuff? Spanish and Portuguese are not the same. By and large, Brazilians understand Spanish (and even export Spanish music), while Spanish speakers are disdainful of Portuguese. Americans don’t care; it’s just a foreign language, no? asarwate : The link you provide is in Spanish. Si! See? filmiholic : [1] Besides Gilbert Gil’s “Filhos de Gandhi” and “Patuscada de Gandhi”, which have little to do with India or Gandhi, there is Chico Cesar’s “Benazir” : Nao aponte o dedo para Benazir Butho = Don’t wag your finger at Benazir Bhutto … : hear it here for free : http://www.last.fm/music/Chico+César/_/Benazir [2} Jorge Benjor (as he now calls himself) has Nur in his lyrics, not Mumtaz. In the Brazilian magazine Veja it was reported that he successfully sued Rod Stewart for plagiarizing his song and that there was no record of Stewart awarding his royalties to UNESCO as Benjor had wanted. Wikipedia says otherwise. Oh well … [3} There are numerous references to India, Delhi, Calcutta in Brazilian songs that are not about India per se.
17 · nil said
the Goanese radio officer on my ship was complimented for speaking better Portuguese than the Brasilians themselves when we visited Rio…there are a number of desi families in Rio…and a Hare Krsna temple to boot! — anonymous coward
Portuguese are not the same. By and large, Brazilians understand Spanish (and even export Spanish music), while Spanish speakers are disdainful of Portuguese.
i thought it was one of those things where portuguese is just a harder language to learn for spanish speakers than vice versa.
Hah! No sindhis – look up the Taj Mahal hotel in Manaus. At least in 2003 it was owned by a Sindhi guy.
Dude, I have seen your picture. You most certainly do not look like a Lebanese. Do not be so ashamed to look bangladeshi.
Dude, I have seen your picture. You most certainly do not look like a Lebanese. Do not be so ashamed to look bangladeshi.
i’m not ashamed 😉 but to white brazilians all “turcos” look the same.
There must be desi stories and people with desi blood in Brazil. Surinam is right next door to Brazil, and half of that country is Indian.
There’s a large Japanese community in Brazil too.
There must be desi stories and people with desi blood in Brazil. Surinam is right next door to Brazil, and half of that country is Indian.
unlikely; look at pop densities…. (that being said, i wouldn’t be surprised if indians were in the slave population and absorbed into the afro-brazilian community, that happened in the united states)
There’s a large Japanese community in Brazil too.
second largest in the world.
I’m a United Statesian of Punjabi descent and visited Brazil this year. Brazilian girls were all over me, waaaaaay more than girls in the US. So the lesson is, go to a country where there you are one of a kind, and you will get laid.
Brazilian girls were all over me, waaaaaay more than girls in the US.
are you sure it isn’t just how brazilian girls are? 😉 (not that there’s anything wrong with that!)
yes, brazilians are very easy for indians to get these days…as long as you can splurge for necessary extra wax
32 · Bobby said
Are you sure they were girls? Did you perform the neccesary checks on the relevant parts of the anatomy?
OK so i looked at the Cafe Felice menu and noticed that “Cha” is the word for tea, in hindi we say “Chai” but in some west coast languages like marathi and konkani, where portugese explorers spent a lot of time, the word is “Cha” im pretty sure they stole that word.
35 · Pagla said
They were definitely girls 🙂
Commercial relations between the two countries are growing at a fairly rapid clip. I think the goal is to reach $10 billion in trade by 2010 (from about $3 billion currently). Tata Consultancy has a pretty large operation in Brazil (1700 IT professional). And as someone mentioned above that Indian pharmas are already selling their products in Brazil, and this includes even the second tier pharma companies like Glenmark.
And BTW, India is not negotiating an FTA with Brazil, but rather with Mercosur as a whole. Anyway, that should give an added fillip to relations between the two countries.
Finally, there are some Brazilian football pros playing in the Indian leagues. The leading scorer for Mohun bagan (among the premier football clubs in India) is the brazilian Baretto.
I recently spent a couple of months in Brazil in Sao Paulo & Rio. Some random observations –Being a “vegetariano” was exhausting. I never ate so much pasta in my life. –Sao Paulo/Rio ain’t cheap… company expense card is key. –Several decent Indian restaurants in Sao Paulo (Itaim Bibi & USP area have several). –The “moto-boys” are crazy… each day in Sao Paulo a few are killed. –The flex fuel cars are cool. No driving on a certain weekday depending on your license plate. –Traffic sucks. Street signs suck. –Sao Paulo has several thousand Indian-origin folks. Many came to teach “English” and have started businesses. –Got hit on by prostitutes nearly every night.
–Brazilian women are independent… you’ll see tables of them out late at bars having fun. –Weird bar tab system. You pay for a drink and receive a receipt which you turn in for a drink. –The servers, waiters, counter girls, etc. speak only Portuguese at the nice places but the customers speak English. Many times a fellow customer acted as my translator. –University of Sao Paulo is a terrific university… similar in feel to an IIT. –Food is too bland… picante!
“Brazil is always the country of the future.”
36 · fallen jhumki said
We have some common day-to-day use portugese words in Indic languages as well. Mes/Mej(Table) is presented to us from latin Mesa. Most indic languages use this term. I guess, it was not a fashion to eat at tables before the portugese arrived.
One latin american country that has some recent migrant Indian community is Venezuela. Chavez has imported lot of Indian oil workers/engineers from gulf countries to replace the striking workers.
Freshest post on SM in quite a while. Thankyouthankyou!
like other desis, ron jeremy needs a brazillian.
a brazillian.
Is that a picture of Christopher Hitchens?First he did Waterboarding, but this is even worse and I could not image the pain in that picture.
Filmiholic:
Your carioca friend is right, though our carioca friends seemed to view them as two separate destinations, asking us whether we wanted to go to “Barra Shopping” or “New York City Center.” Praveen:
I expected Brazil to be cheap, maybe not as cheap as India, but cheap nevertheless, but didn’t find this to be the case. I’d say that prices are equivalent to US rates, and at good restaurants, NY rates, for the most part. Our Brazilian friends took us to Pizza Hut and just to give you a sense, a medium pie was about 30 reals, which is roughly $18. A cappucino at a bookstore was about $2.50. Books all cost 39 reals, about $24, and CDs about 29 reals, which is $18.
vv varaiya: –
I hear you! We did get lucky in Rio though and discover a bunch of great vegetarian restaurants, though most of them tend to be lunch places. If anyone is interested in recommendations, email me separately.
On the subject of cha/chai, my mother’s Irish who emigrated to the US, and I can remember her often saying that she was “dying for a cuppa cha.” Funny enough, in recent years, instead of lugging back industrial-size sacks of tea bags from visits back home, she’s taken to hitting the local Patel supermarket to buy boxes Indian tea bags.
On the vegetarian issue, I remember people selling “sanduich natural” on the beaches in Rio, which were, you got it, veggie sandwiches.
36 · fallen jhumki said
The portugese stole “Cha”, but we took “Vindaloo” from Portugese and made it beyond recognition.
Yep, that’s Hitch.
46 · LandBeyond7Zs said
And we TamizhargaL took on janela in Tamizh jannal for window.
the the cha, leave the che
er… that should be:
leave the che, take the cha