Krishna Kiran's

21-05-2006 (Sunday) We started our journey back to the hosts from the place of conference. We passed through the city called Ourofino which is named after a musician. As I mentioned earlier the city had a church at the centre whose dome looked magnificent from the main road. There was the giant statue of Ourofino at the entrance of the city on the main road and we had some pictures with that backdrop. All en route I could notice that there is greenery everywhere, the roads are well laid and most part is hilly terrain. There were plenty of cattle and horses and they looked great with the mix of red soil and the green grass. I could spot a few black vultures flying in the sky. Their flight style showed that they had abundant food in the greenery on the earth below them. Every house in the rural area is tiled and dish antenna is part of the paraphernalia. Thick bamboo is used as electric poles. We stopped at the house of a Rotarian who has 300 hectares of land under coffee plantat

20-05-2006(Saturday) On this day we went to the city of Monte Siao in the state of Minas Geraes along with Mr.Fabio, Ms.Luciana and the American GSE team. It is interesting to note that every city has a nice arch at the entrance welcoming the visitors and the other side of the arch thanking them for their visit. It is very well done just as you find the main entrance of a rich house in any part of India. Every city, I learnt has a church at the centre and four roads going from that point. The roads are very clean and we had coconut water at a vendor. I was surprised to see how a machine is used to make a hole to place the straw for consumption. The empty coconuts are collected back by the vendor and are safely placed in a bag for disposing off later unlike in India where we just try to throw them on the roads with least concern for others. However the coconut water is not as sweet as ours. This city is popular for knitwear and people from across the state come here to shop exclus

The day was spent in sight seeing with Ms.Luciana and Mr.Fabio along with the American GSE Team. We went to the Cristo – a replica of statue that we would find in RDJ, the downtown and to a wonderful park which was so well maintained. The sight of Geese in the pond at the centre of the park was so beautiful that it is unforgettable. We had seen some shops in the downtown but the items were very expensive as per our standards. My self and Sultan bought a small table top Brazilian national flag. In the evening, after we returned from sight seeing, we had been to the sauna at the hotel where we stayed and had Old Eight whiskey in the sauna. It was such a thrilling moment for all of us, that is, Sultan, Sumit, Dunga and me. In the night we went to the venue of the conference and were treated to the Opera show by Marcelo Jardim which incidentally is the first opera show I had ever seen in my life. It was a treat to the eyes and ears. The kind of symphony that Marcelo maintained was breat

18-05-2006 On this day, we went to the annual(final) day celebrations of a school named Ligao Mirim run by the Rotary. It was amazing to note that all the students had the similar sentiments like across India. All of them were from poor families and Rotary has provided them free education and this was the last day for the batch. We sang our national anthem here and it was received very well. In the afternoon, I traveled with Mr.Ricardo and Ms.Diaene to the conference venue in Agua De Lindoi city which is almost 200 kms from Sao Paulo. Ricardo drove at amazing speed with excellent control at the wheel and we reached the place in just 2 hrs. The journey was through the cities of Braganca, Soccoro, Pedra Bela and Pinhel Zinho. Most of the route traveled was a hilly terrain with lot of greenery all around. I found plenty of high rise grass and good number of trees. The roads were 8-lane, four on each side. There were very heavy trucks which I earlier saw only in Hollywood movies trave

On this day we were taken to the subway. Mr.Serau picked me up at 7 am from my host’s place. We traveled in a subway train from Bresser to Se Se via Brais, Pedro II , Sau Bente , Se Se Liberdade, Sao Jaqueino , Verguiero. Sao Paulo Metro covers 39 cities and has 5 lines.Line 4 is under construction. Line 1 covers 23 stations, Line 2 covers 8 stations,Line 3 covers 20 stations and Line 5 covers 6 stations. Mr.Lazarani is the Manager of SP Metro and explained to us how the Metro works. As per a survey, 75% people traveled by bus, 16% by Metro and 8.8% by other transports.The share of Metro has dropped from 20.4% in 2003 to 15.6% in 2005 due to stiff competition from the bus operators who offered 4-5 trips on one ticket. More people preferred buses to ‘Metro’ taking up the share of buses from 65.3% in 2003 to 75% in 2005. Metro has extended to 60.2 kms and has 101 seconds in headway peak covering a total of 54 stations with 702 motorized cars. The distance traveled is 22mn car kms/yea

16-05-06 This day, my host was to drop at Mr.Serau’s house and we started off at around 9.00 am. On the way, Ricardo cracked some jokes which I loved. He shows me a cemetery (which I later realized) and says ‘I will live in there in the future’ and immediately adds ‘but, you know I am not in a hurry’. When I realized that he was talking about the cemetery, I couldn’t help appreciating his way of approaching life. The next was another joke. Three people were asked what they would like to be known as on their way to the cemetery. The first one says” I would like to be known as a good husband when I die”. The second one says” I would like to be known as a good boss to my sub ordinates”. It is the turn of the third and he says” I would like people to say ‘hey! Look, he is alive, he is alive’ “. The teams' visit today was to the Butanta which is a botanical garden where we saw the most poisonous snakes of the Amazon area. The most famous is the Jiboia which grows to a maximum leng

On this day(15-05-2006) I was picked up by Serau, President of RC of Vila Alpina at 7.05 am though he said 7.15 am. Serau is a retired Bombeiro’s employee and is a stickler to time commitments. On the way which is a 20 minute drive to his house, I enquired about his life. He has two daughters aged 21 and 17. While the elder is married, the second is studying at a local school. He enquired about how marriages are performed in India. He is already aware that the girl goes to the husband’ house in India and said that it is not the case in Brazil where the couple stay in a home of their own. He bought a house for them near to his and the couple stay there. At 7.30 am he received a call from his house on his mobile and the reason for the call was we were not at home as committed at 7.30 am. His wife was enquiring if all was well. I admired the care that his wife had for him. The following are a few observations about the city. Some buildings had glassed compound walls which were looking

The story from 14th May…… The day was Mother’s Day and it was free day as there was no Rotary Programs. I went to the Gym with Ricardo at 11 am after the breakfast. I noticed that most Brazilians like to keep fit and they do not mind the time of burning those extra calories. It was amazing to see that the Gym, a franchisee of Compania Athletica is one of the biggest and best equipped in Brazil. It is a well maintained gym and the entry is purely for members. I was introduced to the girl at the counter as an Indian brother of Ricardo and so was allowed inside. Ricardo is quite popular with the crowd there and it was fun watching the people exercise. The locker room is so neat and good that even the best banks’ will be put to shame. Ricardo’s number is 160 and we set burning for almost one hour. Here I met Emerson and Andria who work with Ricardo. Andria’s body is so fit that I looked at her with astonishment and had a snap with her. The feeling that I got here was that living itself