Wanna know about Jaipur? Ask Marci from Brazil

From flaunting the looks of a desi diva clad in the finest of designer clothes, to that girl-next-door who turns up at the Sunday Farmers’ Market in a comfy Sanganeri block-print dress and flip-flops, Marcela Baur flits seamlessly between various avatars. She’s a long way from home — the city of Porto Alegre in Rio Grande du Sol state, Southern Brazil, where she wore cowboy clothes and worked as a psychologist — yet finds a sense of immense belonging in the heart of the desert state, Rajasthan. She visits her country once every year, but wouldn’t trade her life in Jaipur for that.

“I used to tell my husband that I’d like to experience foreign lands, but had never imagined it would be in Jaipur that I will find my home,” Marcela shares with WB. It was a chance proposal to set up an ATM machine production factory for her husband that brought the family (Marcela, her husband and son) to Jaipur in 2012.“I came here with an open heart and I believe that is why the city and its people welcomed me wholeheartedly,” she adds.

Ask Marcela, she’d know!

You could say she has an omniscient presence in the most touristy city of India. Marci — as her friends affectionately call her — can give you quick pointers on where to pick up your bakery goods, groceries, or where to head for a facelift! Sure enough, this psychologist-turned-influencer is giving professional social media influencers around here a run for their money. We first spotted her in one of the Christmas cake-mixing stories for a leading hotel in the Pink City. Soon, she was being invited to art shows, fashion events, restaurant launches and what not! Like her Insta handle (@jaipurbymarcela) suggests, her social media profiles give followers a roundup of the city from the eye of a non-resident Brazilian.

Can’t do without Google

It wasn’t an easy ride though. Just ten days after Marcela landed in Jaipur with seven items of heavy baggage and a 3-year-old son, her husband began travelling for work. She spoke broken English, was alien to Hindi, and didn’t know anyone in town. “Jaipur is not the same as it was seven years ago. It is only over the past 3 years that the city has grown so much. Besides, I struggled to even communicate with vendors and cabbies, since we only spoke Portuguese back home,” she says. “For a year before moving here, I learnt English an hour each day. But that was American; the accent here, and my own accent are very different. That’s why I would tell my husband – I can do without you, but I cannot do without Google!” she adds with a hearty laugh, as she recalls going around town to pick up necessary items with the help of Google images on her phone. 

Gradually, she started connecting with other foreigners and made friends. “I love to find out about places and also like to share information with the others. I would visit places and events to gather information about the city. Then, my foreign friends started seeking suggestions — where to look for an apartment, to buy a birthday cake, or to get their clothes tailored,” she says. “Since I had no help when I arrived, I connected with more foreign nationals living in the city to help them. I would share all that I knew on WhatsApp groups, and now I post it all on Instagram. Even Indians have begun to call me, since I sometimes have more information than they do!” she exclaims.

Oh, those crazy Indian things

Though Marcela gets a lot of invitations to attend promotional events, restaurant launches and lifestyle shows, she insists she doesn’t always paint a rosy picture. “Sometimes the place or services offered are not up to the mark. You wouldn’t want to recommend that to a family member, or friend. I am honest about it and politely tell them that I am not going to promote it on social media,” she says, before adding, “With the background of working in the human resources department, I help deserving people get more business and improve their customer experience.”

While Marcela adores her foreigner friends, she says life changed after she made Indian friends. “I can call them at midnight, in case of an emergency. They are the ones who really make me feel at home here,” she adds.Does she miss home? Apparently, no. On the contrary, it’s the crazy Indian things that she misses when she’s visiting Brazil. “There are no elephants going around the streets there; you would not find five cows standing outside the supermarket. I have never found a familiar monkey sitting atop my car! I have never told a painter there, ‘You paint my home — no, not the switch, only the walls!’ We miss this fun there,” she laughs, revealing the secret of her love for India. Her desi girl makeover hits us, quite spectacularly, when in a moment of confusion while clicking a selfie with us, she asks us not be formal with just two simple Hindi words. “Chal na (go on, just do it). And, now we know…