Brazil Blog #1 : A is for "a Caipirinha", B is for .....

Authors(Bloggers) Note : Misconception Number 1 : Brazilians may be fun loving ,love wild music, and dress provocatingly...but in real life,  they are not flirtatious, frivolous as my blog or their clothing may indicate. The clothing is a partly due to the climate and also due to simplicity. There is a very strong family bonding here. Family time is Prime time. 

Now to the Blog

What's it with Brazil?

I've just been here for 72 hours and I'm already feeling like an introvert... I sit in my room or at the Hotel pool bar, with a hesitant fear to go out or lift my head. While they do say its a little dangerous out there, I  unequivocally can say that it's terribly dangerous out there. 

And I am NOT referring to street crime here. I'm frightened at becoming weak... of losing self control... of becoming bold..  of becoming another one of those typical Indian male, traveling single, business tourists.. to yield to temptation - temptation that seems to flirtatiously float around in dangerously close proximity.

This is a really wicked place.. I feel like Adam.. and I'm sitting in my room..only to prevent our future humankind from paying for sins that I dont want to commit!!

But before you think Im going into the usual rhetoric about bold, buxom, brazen Brazilian women in Fortaleza, I shall fearlessly say, that this isn't a blog about male lust, or about weaknesses. It is more about a drink, a potion of sorts that has given me the courage to step out into the streets of Fortaleza.

Today,  am also writing to bring a little truthful reality to common misconceptions about Brazil, especially those brought about by silly blogs and bloggers like me.. ..Indian businessmen on a business trip, ogling, flirting, wandering and wishing they had brought their sunglasses to enable them to sneak those furtive glances at the exposure, without exposing themselves!

On day #One, you inherit from the ambience, this typical fear to lift your eyes. If at all you happen to yield, let your heart take over, raise your head, then suddenly the world around you starts galloping faster.  Your heart beats guiltily faster. Your head wishes it could turn around a whole 180 degrees..just like in those cartoon films... Your head spins. In real life, your head would be wrenched out of your neck. Not wrenched out by your spouse for overseas misdemeanors, but by the very movement of human traffic around you, that urges you to get up, merge with the distant rhythms, and hypnotically follow.

Thats when you panic! You imagine yourself headless.. you imagine that you will live an ostrich like existence... never be able to merge into the multitude of colors, the very ones that make you dizzy : 

You need a break. You need a miracle.

You sit down at a roadside restaurant and discover this Brazilian magic potion. And by magic, that one first sip, will distract you at first and will bring relief to your quandary... a few more sips and glasses will make your vision go a little blurry, but at the same time, will calm you down. A very 'OM' like chant, repeated often, it could take you into a blissfully serene state of mind, however, be cautious, as it also could take you to a highly un meditational state of tranquility!! 

The Caipi ( Caipirinha.. Wonder Mixer Fixer)

The first time I learnt of the potion, the "Caipirinha", strangely enough wasn't any where in these temperate warm humid like climates, where it becomes an essential part of not just culture, but of a natural sense to strip down to the bear minimum of clothing, without an iota of fear or apprehension that would make anyone feel this now very distracting piece of apparel be ever considered inappropriate.

I, strangely enough first had my first Caipirinha in cold, freezing, shivery Kiel in Germany, in Winter, at Angela & Madhu's home, years ago ..celebrating the arrival of a New Year. It was snowing and was cold... Everyone clothed like 'show-off' eskimos,.. and we were warming ourselves up with this cold frozen drink... The sugar with crushed lemon and Cachaça (-ka-sha-ssa-) - a kind of white clear rhum based alcohol distilled from the juice of the sugar cane!! "This is a Caipirinha", Madhu informed me.  Never would I have dreamt that 15 years later, I would be sitting on the roadside in Fortaleza, Brazil, blogging about this very powerful magical Caipirinha, and more pertinently, it being a solution for first time visitors to get over the 'feel embarrassed while you stare' in Brazil syndrome. 

Making the Magic Potion:

Scoop a couple of table spoons of brown sugar (..and before I even start conceiving this tale, I land up at #Controversy No:1 - I've grown to be a popular Caipirinha maker, shaker and taker..and have always been insisting that a real Caipi (blissfully shortened name, akin to many other short things in Brazil) needs to be made with Brown sugar.... and here, in the Mecca of Caipirinhas...I'm told very matter of factly, that it is normally made using regular White Sugar!! This will have to be clarified before I leave the shores of Iracema* )... Well, back to the recipe to conjur up this lethal fix..... You will have to cut two whole lemons into 16 quarters, dollop them into your V shaped Caipirinha hard glass (#Controversy No:2 - We have always made and drank our Caipis in a Hard V shaped glass, However, here in its alleged birthplace, I've had Caipis in every shaped and sized glass!!) You then menacingly take this little wooden baton, crush the lemons and the sugar under, smothering the sugar crystals with the lime, taking care to respect the harsh outer skin of the lemons, yet the expertise to extract essential extracts from the inside of  the lime. Then the all important, a very nice, large, pouring of Cachaça into the glass... then top up the glass with crushed Ice (Controversy No:3 - Always use crushed ice, my mentor , my tutor told me 15 years ago..and we religiously made Caipis with crushed Ice... I have had Caipis with all forms of ice, from cubes to crushed, and thus will have to learn the true form to use chilling supplements in this drink - Anyone?)... Then the bartender and the dancer merge. The drink from the land of Samba and the Carnival.. needs a little music to make the mix mix. Invert the shaker and shake the mixture in a very un James Bondly style...shake it, Stir up the movement and pour the whole thing into the glass, drop a pre cut straw into the glass, with the straw just a few inches over the brim, permitting the escaping wisps of lime, chacaça, chilled spray, tickle your nostrils while your tongue begins to listen to the music within your imagination. A few sips, interspersed with intermissions to now stir up the crushed ice, mix the brown sugar (*) with the Cachaça and agitate the lemon bits to have a say in the flavors... and then a few more sips...mix mix.. the rhythm of the music.. slowly envelopes you... The sugar dissolves slowly, romancing with the Cachaça, dancing with the lime. The Caipirinha clouds up. The Ice melts. The level in the glass reduces. Your mind clears, the cloudy fog lifts, your vision remains focussed, now completely oblivious of inhibitions, now subconsciously conscious of the shape, size and colours of tissue on seemingly invisible torsos, that not so very long ago, almost condemned you to a period of solitude. 

"Mais um Caipirinha, por favor.. " (one more Caipirinha, please)

and you have begun a true tryst with a new culture, now, shedding all inhibitions into oblivion. 

Ram 

in Fortaleza
Gaining courage to go out alone
Learning more about Caipirionomics!