Maira Carvalho

When I started taking the bus to work, I noticed that, although people here say that buses don't have fixed time, they do have a schedule that can be more or less relied on. And I noticed that there were some people that were always taking the same bus (plus the driver and the cobrador were always the same).

But for some reason, two guys really caught my attention. One takes the bus at the same bus stop as me, the other one takes it some two stops further. They are always well dressed (as in: going to work in an office), and they are always on time at the bus stop, every single day. Oh, and they also spoke very little.

My first thought about the two guys (well, misters, one is probably in his 30s and the other one in his 50s) was that they were somehow like me: activists, users of public transportation by choice. I thought so because there was something about them that didn't fit the picture I have in my mind about the users of public transportation here in Brasília. We, Brazilians, don't have this habit of being on time. I take that bus pretty often, but not every single day. Sometimes I take the earlier one, sometimes the later. I have to run to the stop to catch the bus, and eventually I miss it. But whenever I take that bus, those two guys are there. In addition, the not talking thing was also pretty weird. After traveling with the same person two or three times, there's no way a Brazilian wouldn't start chatting and acting as long time friends (for example, there is a girl who frequently takes the same bus, and she is always flirting with the cobrador).

This week, however, I unveiled the mystery. I finally took the courage to start a conversation with the guy at the bus stop. To what he answered: não falo português (I don't speak Portuguese). A-ha! So, it turns out the guy is Indian and works at the Embassy! He's been here for three months, and he will stay for another 3 years. The older man is also an Indian and also works at the Embassy.

It was funny to notice, though, that, by their looks, I could never tell they were not Brazilian. I'm getting used again to our racial diversity :)