It was unusual to be greeted in Brazil, when I went for a business meeting, with the President of a local Brazilian company, with a NAMASTE. Well it began with business as usual. Then during the course of a discsussion between this lady and her secretary, I felt I heard “thik hai; thik hai”. I thought my ears were resonating, I was perhaps home sick after a long and harrowing trip.
A little later, while talking to me this lady used the words “achha – achha”. I could not be making a mistake a second time. Clearly, something was amiss.
Curious beyond measure, I asked, if the Portuguese spoken in Brazil was different from the standard Portuguese, as I heard her dialog being punctuated with Hindi interjections, and with syntactically perfect usage and placement.
The lady was more surprised than me, as I did not know, having being in Brazil for 3 nights already, that a prime time soap was Caminhas Das Indias, a love story, set in post Independence India, shot in Jaipur, Delhi, Udaipur and Chandni Chowk, with Brazilian actors, in Portuguese, but with Hindi being used where necessary, just to create the desired impact.
More interestingly, the lady, pulled out with a flourish, which even girls in modern India will find difficult to mimic, a mangal sutra that she wore on her bossom.
It is a love story between a Dalit boy and Brahmin girl, a theme, too beaten and hackneyed and soapworn for India, yet appealing to a foreigner, who even today find the India caste system too intriguing and defying comprehension, to ignore. From such a amazingly vast canvas of themes imbued with the archetypically soap type melodrama and sentimentality, they chose one that impinged on the caste system.
But these are soft conquests which Indian culture is known to make, right from the days of the Cholas when India acquired a cognizable marine might. Infact, culture would be the avant guard of the army.
A little later, while talking to me this lady used the words “achha – achha”. I could not be making a mistake a second time. Clearly, something was amiss.
Curious beyond measure, I asked, if the Portuguese spoken in Brazil was different from the standard Portuguese, as I heard her dialog being punctuated with Hindi interjections, and with syntactically perfect usage and placement.
The lady was more surprised than me, as I did not know, having being in Brazil for 3 nights already, that a prime time soap was Caminhas Das Indias, a love story, set in post Independence India, shot in Jaipur, Delhi, Udaipur and Chandni Chowk, with Brazilian actors, in Portuguese, but with Hindi being used where necessary, just to create the desired impact.
More interestingly, the lady, pulled out with a flourish, which even girls in modern India will find difficult to mimic, a mangal sutra that she wore on her bossom.
It is a love story between a Dalit boy and Brahmin girl, a theme, too beaten and hackneyed and soapworn for India, yet appealing to a foreigner, who even today find the India caste system too intriguing and defying comprehension, to ignore. From such a amazingly vast canvas of themes imbued with the archetypically soap type melodrama and sentimentality, they chose one that impinged on the caste system.
But these are soft conquests which Indian culture is known to make, right from the days of the Cholas when India acquired a cognizable marine might. Infact, culture would be the avant guard of the army.
No comments:
Post a Comment