Path to India - Part I

It took years for Vasco Da Gama to find the path to India. Took me only 18h.
Hyderabad is a fascinating place. With a population of ~6.5 million people and situated in the middle of the country, Hyderabad is a unique mix of cultures, religions (1/2 of the population is Muslim), traditions and high-tech companies. This was what mostly caught my attention: one hour you're talking to a local about how the culture works and she explains you a lot of the tradition of the people and the land, history that dates back to thousands of years ago, and in the following hour she's explaining you how to write state-of-the-art, highly advanced computer software. A contrast that I feel lucky to have had a chance to experience. The hospitality and friendship of folks in the city made me feel like home. Which speaking about home, there are several similarities between Hyderabad and Recife: same distance to the equator (therefore same climate, vegetation, temperature), similar infrastructure problems and an interesting traffic that deserves some comments (I shall go back to the traffic topic shortly). Regarding infrastructure, yes, there are problems in Hyderabad, and there is poverty on the outskirts of the city too; but, I also come from a developing country which suffers from similar issues that I saw here - so that did not surprise nor shock me at all. Moreover, it would be silly from my part to compare Hyderabad to US or any other "developed" country. I admire the perseverance of the people, their easy smile, and their spiritual stronghold that transcends the boundaries of religions, and unites the country based on a simple though powerful principle: have faith in God (no matter what God means to you: Brahma, Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, Santa Claus, Nothing, an Old Fisher, a light, no light, a soccer team, me, etc), and try to help others. Family attachments here are also very strong, which reminds me of my place. But back to the traffic, that was the best!! Rules are simple - here they are:

• If your car has a broken horn, don't drive. Horns are required
• If someone behind you blows the horn, move to your left. You'll have 0.02 seconds to do it, so be fast
• If you want to speed up, this is what you do:
• There will be a lot of things in front of you: cars, animals, people, bikes, yellow tiny cabs, and more
• No worries. Blow the horn. Twice, with a 0.5 second interval in between
• Speed up. Don’t be afraid
• Suddenly, from nowhere, right in front of you a space big enough to fit only (and only) your car will emerge
• Place the car into that space (do not use side mirrors, the space is not that big). Repeat the process

Cricket here is the bomb! I watched a couple of matches, and you know what, it is fun. Of course, watching a 5 days long match may be too much for me. But I still got a chance to play and I scored few runs, with a good 4-runs hit, hehe. Soccer is also big here. Did you know that India was invited to play the World Cup in 1950 in Brazil, but in the last minute they declined the invitation because they wanted to play barefoot, which wasn’t allowed? Another big sport here in hockey (not ice hockey - any clue why?).
Overall, it was an all-good experience: business, new friends, incredible food, historical places. Towards the end, I got food poisoning but drinking fresh coconut water is healing my body fast (honey, thx for the idea! :))

To hell with France!!!

France sucks. I've been there before, and I can't stress enough how much I disliked that place: terrible food, extremely impolite people, no places to visit at all, everything is expensive, the people are ugly, dumb and smelly, and the list keeps growing.
Fuck, I'm such a bad loser…
France is a nice place, and all said above is not true (well, almost all).
We lost again to the same guys in a world cup, but this time it was different. This time we lost because… we simply did not try to score a goal! Maybe they just forgot that the game was QUARTER FINALS OF A WORLD CUP, for Christ's sake !!! Maybe Ronaldo was busy, eating the grass around him. Maybe Kaka, Juninho and Adriano drunk too much wine the day before and were feeling too sleepy to play. What's wrong with you guys?!?
And Ronaldinho!! What happened to you, man!? Close to one billion people were watching you, waiting for the magic assistances, or for the disconcerting dribbles. But no, you decided to spoil everybody's expectation and decided to appear as a mediocre player. Perhaps you felt sorry for all the mediocre players in the world and said: "on behalf of all my buddies who are below-the-average-nobody-notices players, I'll join you guys!". Oh c'mon, man, c'mon, what the heck was going on your mind! Where is the so famous Joga Bonito?! Joga Bonito my ass!!! You guys should go on public radio/television and apologize to everybody who spent valuable hours watching that joke. And Ronaldo: please get in shape, damn it!!! You’re a professional player, you cannot afford not being in shape! If you were me, then that would be ok since you'd be sitting your fat ass on a chair for 12h every single day, but you're a professional soccer player, keep buzzing that in your hear until one of your (only) two brain cells picks up the info! So STOP EATING LIKE A PIG!!!
I'm sorry, readers, but if you're Brazilian you know how I'm feeling, and I had to get this frustration out of me. I promise that upcoming blogs will be much more moderated. And in case Brazil does not learn in the next few years, here is a picture of me preparing for 2010: