India to Amazon
It is a story of an Indian who left India to live in the heart of the Amazon forest for the last 27 years!
It was at the end of the year 1999, when I left India for Sao Paulo, in Brazil as part of a overseas training program. He left India without knowing anything about Brazil. After a long travel (4 day!) he reached in São Paulo. He had sent a fax to his supervisor in Brazil about his travel plan. Unfortunately, the fax came to his destination after I had reached in Brazil. There was nobody to pick me up and I had no option but take a bus and then a taxi to reach my destination. I had U$100 with me for any emergency and I changed this money in the airport. To my surprise, I got about 60 million cruzados (Brazilian old currency)! The inflation in Brazil was that time about 5000 percent. Some how I could catch the bus and pay the taxi till where I supposed to reach. New surprise! Nobody in my destination knew English and I had no ideia about português language! After a long time explaining about me and about the fax I had sent, they welcomed me with a Brazilian drink which made me totally drunk!
Lot of things happened during the last 27 years! I came to Brazil for one year of experience, but now it is almost 3 decades. Did two graduation, post-graduation, masters, PhD, post-PhD. Worked with local tribal people, landless people´s movement, social movement, environmental movement, etc. Long and long histories.
The last 20 years in Amazon forest, living 6 years in a boat in Amazon river. So many histories, that I almost lost my Indian identity.
