28-11-2020, 04:19 PM
Later Ma told me that after meeting Kajal she understood why I liked her so much. She told me that she would protect me and Kajal both before anything bad could happen. But she also added that I must find a girlfriend who is unattached.
Story continues here...
Kajal too was in complete agreement with Ma’s point of view. She saw herself as more of my caretaker… a big sister if you will. So, she took it on herself to find me a suitable match. She often used to tell me about the suitable girls in houses where she worked or from her network. Her efforts seemed cute to me, but I asked her to stop… for I might have found one for myself. The first woman, whom I could even begin to consider as my girlfriend, was a foreigner - a Brazilian. Even more interesting was the fact that she was also a woman who I never met in person. Her name was Gabriela (Gabi) Sousa. We had a chance meeting on one of the very primitive chat rooms at that time. That was when I was in the last year of my engineering. The engineering college had a well-kept computer center, which not many people used. It had good internet connectivity, although you needed to book in advance and pay for it. Since the fee was not too much, I could afford it. Some people used it, and mostly for chatting related activities.
When I graduated and started my new job, I invested in a new personal computer and internet connection (really a dial up connection, which as excruciatingly slow, unreliable, and damn costly around that time). My parents could not really make any head or tail of it, but I found it useful as many of my friends had found jobs overseas (USA, Canada and Europe) and it was fun to be able to talk to them at the same time despite them being in different time zones. They were my coach and guide when it came to the ‘cutting edge’ of the technology. They told me about the chat rooms’ concept, which I think was based on Java? People who know this kind of stuff can tell better. But I was able to afford this luxury because my job paid well, and I hardly had any expenses. Anyway, so I met Gabi during one the chat room related to India. There were hardly any chat rooms related to India then, and I was curious to see what was being discussed on it. What caught my eyes was an intelligent discussion lead by one of the foreigner girls (during those days, people did not really use aliases much and it was way more easier to know about each other just by their screen names).
When we think of Brazil, we think of a country where women wear skimpy bikinis and even show-off their bodies, especially during the world-famous Carnival. We all have seen those bizarre costumes, haven’t we? But it would come as a surprise to all my readers here that contradicting Brazil’s hyper-sexualized global image is rather unknown conservative social underpinning. Some observers rightly noticed the ‘great paradox’ that Brazil is - it is the land of carnival (who has not seen those videos of scantily dressed women), dental-floss bikinis, and plastic surgery. But Brazil is also a place where many traditional attitudes and values persist. I will now digress slightly from the topic, so that I am able to better present my understanding about Brazil and her people. Brazilians are predominantly a mix of three races - indigenous Indians, European settlers, and African slaves. During the recent times, these three races mixed and blended, and therefore they are more open about race-mixing than any other part of the world. Despite that liberal attitude towards race, there is surprisingly an underlying racism. Reports indicate that dark skinned people are less likely to be employed, therefore, are more likely to be poor. But that aside, one thing that seems to bind them all is their love for music and dance. Most of the Brazilians start learning to dance since a very young age.
Okay, I have digressed from the main topic, and should come back to Gabi. She was extremely fascinated by India, her idea and almost anything related to the country. In that zeal, she even joined the Hare Krishna sect, when they set up their shop there. Of course, after that association, her knowledge about India and Hinduism grew tremendously. But her knowledge was very orthodox and kind of outdated. I thought I could also tell a thing or two to her and at the same time can have an ‘international’ friend. In the first few conversations, I could see that she was very intelligent. She had keen observation and amazing ability to develop insights. I liked her mind, her knowledge about India and the different parts of her culture. I liked her stand on several issues and the way she looked at things.
Her questions on several religious topics and her stand on them were the most productive times that I ever spent on the internet. Searching and exploring answers to her questions challenged me intellectually. I will be honest to you – I had a strong desire to be able to see her. But somehow, I just fell short of asking her for her photos. But then, barring the initial few days, I stopped caring about how she looked (she never voluntarily shared her photos at the beginning anyway). I was completely fascinated by her intelligence. Sure enough, I too caught her attention. She shared her email with me, and we started to exchange emails and found that she had a good sense of humor too.
Story continues here...
Kajal too was in complete agreement with Ma’s point of view. She saw herself as more of my caretaker… a big sister if you will. So, she took it on herself to find me a suitable match. She often used to tell me about the suitable girls in houses where she worked or from her network. Her efforts seemed cute to me, but I asked her to stop… for I might have found one for myself. The first woman, whom I could even begin to consider as my girlfriend, was a foreigner - a Brazilian. Even more interesting was the fact that she was also a woman who I never met in person. Her name was Gabriela (Gabi) Sousa. We had a chance meeting on one of the very primitive chat rooms at that time. That was when I was in the last year of my engineering. The engineering college had a well-kept computer center, which not many people used. It had good internet connectivity, although you needed to book in advance and pay for it. Since the fee was not too much, I could afford it. Some people used it, and mostly for chatting related activities.
When I graduated and started my new job, I invested in a new personal computer and internet connection (really a dial up connection, which as excruciatingly slow, unreliable, and damn costly around that time). My parents could not really make any head or tail of it, but I found it useful as many of my friends had found jobs overseas (USA, Canada and Europe) and it was fun to be able to talk to them at the same time despite them being in different time zones. They were my coach and guide when it came to the ‘cutting edge’ of the technology. They told me about the chat rooms’ concept, which I think was based on Java? People who know this kind of stuff can tell better. But I was able to afford this luxury because my job paid well, and I hardly had any expenses. Anyway, so I met Gabi during one the chat room related to India. There were hardly any chat rooms related to India then, and I was curious to see what was being discussed on it. What caught my eyes was an intelligent discussion lead by one of the foreigner girls (during those days, people did not really use aliases much and it was way more easier to know about each other just by their screen names).
When we think of Brazil, we think of a country where women wear skimpy bikinis and even show-off their bodies, especially during the world-famous Carnival. We all have seen those bizarre costumes, haven’t we? But it would come as a surprise to all my readers here that contradicting Brazil’s hyper-sexualized global image is rather unknown conservative social underpinning. Some observers rightly noticed the ‘great paradox’ that Brazil is - it is the land of carnival (who has not seen those videos of scantily dressed women), dental-floss bikinis, and plastic surgery. But Brazil is also a place where many traditional attitudes and values persist. I will now digress slightly from the topic, so that I am able to better present my understanding about Brazil and her people. Brazilians are predominantly a mix of three races - indigenous Indians, European settlers, and African slaves. During the recent times, these three races mixed and blended, and therefore they are more open about race-mixing than any other part of the world. Despite that liberal attitude towards race, there is surprisingly an underlying racism. Reports indicate that dark skinned people are less likely to be employed, therefore, are more likely to be poor. But that aside, one thing that seems to bind them all is their love for music and dance. Most of the Brazilians start learning to dance since a very young age.
Okay, I have digressed from the main topic, and should come back to Gabi. She was extremely fascinated by India, her idea and almost anything related to the country. In that zeal, she even joined the Hare Krishna sect, when they set up their shop there. Of course, after that association, her knowledge about India and Hinduism grew tremendously. But her knowledge was very orthodox and kind of outdated. I thought I could also tell a thing or two to her and at the same time can have an ‘international’ friend. In the first few conversations, I could see that she was very intelligent. She had keen observation and amazing ability to develop insights. I liked her mind, her knowledge about India and the different parts of her culture. I liked her stand on several issues and the way she looked at things.
Her questions on several religious topics and her stand on them were the most productive times that I ever spent on the internet. Searching and exploring answers to her questions challenged me intellectually. I will be honest to you – I had a strong desire to be able to see her. But somehow, I just fell short of asking her for her photos. But then, barring the initial few days, I stopped caring about how she looked (she never voluntarily shared her photos at the beginning anyway). I was completely fascinated by her intelligence. Sure enough, I too caught her attention. She shared her email with me, and we started to exchange emails and found that she had a good sense of humor too.
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