In case I haven’t mentioned it, I’m relocating to Bangalore, India to take a full-time job with a media startup. Moving to India means uprooting my life and literally restarting halfway across the planet. Such is the life of a TechTrotter.

Although I spent much of the summer months in Brazil it’s nice to know that India was never as far away as it seemed. In particular, a soap opera on the Brazil’s most watched network, Globo, helped to create a common link between the two continents. While I wait for my connecting flight to Mumbai in the Brussels International Airport, allow me to tell you about one of my favorite Brazilian TV shows, Caminho das Indias. (The following contains excerpts from a post original intended for publication on SAJA Forum.)

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India’s impact on the world is felt in myriad ways, but the form it takes can often come as a bit of a surprise. Members of the Indian diaspora are found throughout Africa, Oceania and the Caribbean, but there is one place few would expect; Brazil.

One of Brazil’s most popular television shows is soap opera is called ‘Caminho das Indias‘ or, ‘Way of the Indies.’ The show airs nightly after the 8PM news broadcast on Globo, the largest television network in Brazil. The show has three inter-linked plots that unfold simultaneously in Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro and Dubai and the cast features more than a dozen Portuguese-speaking, Brazilian-born Desis.

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It looks like the word is getting out. On Sunday TechtTrotter was mentioned in an article published by one of India’s largest daily newspapers, the Deccan Chronicle. According to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the Chronicle has a circulation of over 1.3 million copies of their english-language.

In a story about changing job options for graduates of journalism programs, I was named along with Ankita Rao, a graduate of the University of Florida who will be taking a volunteer post in Northern India. We are both eschewing the traditional  post-graduation career path. You can read the story called “Catch A Falling Star This Year” here.

I was pleased to receive the free publicity, but the story itself was riddled with factual inaccuracies. Because a journalist lives and dies by his credibility, it’s worth taking a second to highlight some of the many mistakes that were injected into the story.

• The story misquotes me in direct citation. The author made a up a quote that sounded good. Here’s what author Asha Sachdev published:

“I created a journalistic project called TechTrotter (techtrotter. org) and it will take me travelling for two months to Brazil, Ukraine, Nigeria, South Africa, India and to the Philippines!” Chima writes to Rao.

Here’s what I wrote:

“Great post. You and I are embarking on similar journeys after the completion of the journalism degree. I will be traveling for two months to Brazil, Ukraine, Nigeria, South Africa and the Philippines as part of a journalistic project I created called TechTrotter. Check it out; www.techtrotter.org.”

You can see the original article and my comments here.

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