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Rolando stood no more than five feet and a couple of inches tall. He greeted me with a warm smile and moved towards my bag. My massive suitcase was too much for one person to carry all the way to the third floor. “No”, was all I managed to voice, knowing that one commonality between Spanish and English. The situation was simple, yet complicated. Here I was, in Peru, not knowing a lick of Spanish, seeking help from a local who spoke only Spanish. Fortunately, I had a Spanish speaking friend, Lucia with me, who at that moment had disappeared to unload her bags. Rolando and I awkwardly smiled and tried to communicate with the other, until Lucia appeared to break the awkward silence. She explained that all three of us would need to carry the bags up a narrow staircase to our room on the top floor of a house. It seemed a long way up , but we were looking forward to the view from there! After struggling, but managing to move our things, Rolando and Lucia talked a bit about our plans for the next few days in Piura, a small city near the Ecuador border. She informed me that Rolando had offered to drive us around throughout our stay in the city, and he would pick us up early the next morning. Sure enough, Rolando was waiting is his mini-van at 8 a.m, bright and cheery. Tired and mildly jetlagged, I drifted off in the back seat. An hour later, I woke up to nothing changed. Ronaldo and Lucia were absorbed in conversation, and probably hadn’t realised my temporary absence. Within minutes, Rolando made eye contact with me in the rear view mirror and said something excitedly to her. She laughed and said Rolando had no idea I was from India till she had mentioned it. He was a huge fan of Bollywood movies and wanted to discuss this with me. I was so caught off guard, it took me a minute to fully grasp what was happening. Here I was, an Indian girl embarking on a great South American adventure, only to be talking about Bollywood movies! Rolando also switched from radio to the one Bollywood CD he had. The songs were almost 20 years old, but definitely transported me to a different time, a more carefree time in my childhood when I would play these songs on my stereo system and dance and sing around the house. Rolando saw the flicker of recognition on my face and started singing along with the music. He knew the words of almost all the songs, even outdoing me at times! We spent the rest of the journey singing along to music which felt somewhat misplaced in the Peruvian countryside, but at the same time, belonged there with Rolando, with me, and with anyone else who dared to find their soul captured by the very music that ran through my blood. I could not help but be enthralled by the situation. Rolando told me that Indian movies and music were popular amongst many Peruvians near Piura, which baffled me because Peru and Chile are the furthest two countries from India! This music had travelled a long way, from stereo systems in Mumbai, to Rolando’s car in Peru! We spent the late morning at a beach-side town with some local fishermen, learning the ways of the South Pacific. Rolando, now very much a part of our team, joined us wherever we went. At the lunch table, over a plate of ceviche, he looked at me seriously and said “Mogambo khush hua”, imitating an iconic dialogue from an Indian movie of the 1980s. We laughed our hearts out. Through Lucia, who is Brazilian, he told us that there were many similarities between Indian and Brazilian films, and we should watch these movies together- something we had never considered. We promised to get down to it, as soon as we could. Over the days, Rolando not only become our friend, but brought Lucia and me closer to each other in ways we couldn’t imagine. He definitely made Peru feel like home for his Indian “amiga”.