Connecting with India

Namaste folks!

Today I want to share with you a little bit of my experience and why I ended up connecting with India.

Well, I've been working with India since 2005, but it's been almost five years since I moved here to start operations for a Fintech (Financial Technology companies). During these 5 years I ended up living in Mumbai for a while and currently reside in Gurgaon, the technological hub of the great New Delhi (I will address Gurgaon in another post).

I believe that this experience of facing a new country as an "expat", even more a country as peculiar as India, added a lot to my professional career, but it added much more to my cultural background, my life experience and the ways of dealing and face everyday problems.

Speaking specifically about living in New Delhi, I often say that it is a roller coaster of emotions! You experience spikes and falls of sensation in this city continuously, often on the same day, which makes it an even more challenging experience.

Today, living a little longer in Gurgaon, I realize and miss the charm of New Delhi, which is an ancient and culturally rich city. Although chaotic, sometimes we find peace in beautiful parks, such as Lodhi Garden and Hauz Khas, but about 200 meters ahead we are immersed in a crazy horn, thousands of people and scenes that remind us of the customs of the past. In fact, I usually say that India in general is a Brazil in the 80-90s, mainly in social values and in the daily life of a company.

Contrary to what many people think, New Delhi has a super varied gastronomic scene and leaves behind many cities in Brazil, like Belo Horizonte that I know well. Here we can try traditional street food and at the same time go to a molecular restaurant with the new Indian cuisine. The options range from Tibetan and Mongolian food to American fast food and Brazilian food (yes, we can find it here). Believe me, the wealth of flavors and characteristic mix of Asian countries make this experience more unique.

I could write for hours here enumerating different experiences that came to live and work in India gave me, but following the basic theme of Viajando Fácil, I could not fail to highlight the trips. India alone is a destination that you would spend years traveling to and yet would have a lot of different things to see. During that time, I had the opportunity to visit many places around here, to name a few of those trips I would say as an example Gulmarg, a ski resort in the Kashmira region, the beautiful and romantic Jaipur, and of course Goa, the Bahia of India (or it would be the Bahia to Brazilian Goa?).

In addition to these trips to India, living in New Delhi, I am in a privileged and strategic position to explore Asia, a continent that I have great passion. The proximity greatly facilitates access to some trips that were once only dreams. For example, a flight from New Delhi to Kathmandu, Nepal, takes less than 1 hour! So, during these last 5 years, I ended up visiting Nepal, Maldives, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau and Indonesia, and I am sure that several other destinations are yet to come. But I will tell you these stories soon, here at Viajando Fácil. I will also post several interesting recipes that I learned on the way and that I make here at home in my spare time.