This city's trees have been half blown-down by a cyclone, but still it stands, albeit em decadência, as Brazilians might say.There's lots to remind one of the nordeste, Salvador & São Luis.
The wet and sweet putrescence of the streets especially reminds me of days & nights in Maranhão.
There's too much to put it all in one blog post.Here we are in a French colonial library (very like some old Portuguese structure that might overlook the South Atlantic, this one is steps from the Bay of Bengal, where I went to watch the sun yesterday morning), which is the heart of the École Françase d'Extrême Orient where we listened about the work of various humanities scholars here in what was once the most important redoubt of the little bits of the subcontinent still called French India up through the middle of last century.
Interesting post, at least for me. Graduating Colgate (1955), I joined the U.S. Foreign Service. First post: Madras. Traveled all over South India for three years, including Pondichery. Twenty-five years later, my last overseas post: Sâo Paulo, Brasil, six years. Traveled Brasil, including Salvador. Like you, I found much similarity in the physical places of India and Brasil; but the cultures, the people, the philosophies of life are so different that it's hard for me to make the connection you suggest. Perhaps, today, both countries are BRICs, and that, more than anything else, unites them.
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