Rio de Janeiro: First things first. The Rio carnival is not a topless show. There is a generous display of flesh by Brazilian beauties at the annual samba parade, which is also known as the world’s biggest party, but it’s a serious affair for thousands of people who work round the year to make it a success. Before you see the photos of the first day of the parade, here are some basic facts about the greatest show on this planet.

Rio has many samba schools, known as escola de samba. Almost all of them are based in dozens of slums called favelas. This party is organized by the slum dwellers of Rio. During the two-day parade, the top 12 samba schools parade at Rio's Sambadrome stadium and contest for the best school trophy -- a contest that is taken extremely seriously by Brazilians. Rio residents support the same samba school fiercely throughout their lives with the same passion they show for soccer.

Each school features 4,000 to 6,000 drummers, dancers and other participants as well as spectacularly decorated floats. Each school chooses a theme and tells a story with specially written samba songs. The much talked about Samba Queens, called rainha, leads the drum corps. Dressed in little more than a huge plumed headdress and high-heeled shoes, they are often famous actresses or models, but they are just one small part of each school. Each school takes close to hour and a half to cover 500 metres of the Sambodrome avenue.

Sunday night’s party was mind-boggling. I have never seen anything like this before. Four hundred men beating drums in unison give you goose bumps. One thousands dancers doing samba together is an amazing scene. Ice cold beer was flowing like water. As I stood on the avenue very close to the drummers, dancers and Samba Queens, I could see some famous faces – Madonna, Ronaldo, Robinho and Dunga, enjoying the party – right behind us. Paris Hilton and Gerard Butler were there too. The show began at 9pm and we left the Sambodrome at 6am.

Though most of the stories presented by six samba schools were about Brazil, there was a strong Indian element in at least two stories. There were loud cheers and huge applause from 10,000-strong crowd when large statues of Buddha and Ganesha, surrounded by beautiful dancers in saris arrived on the avenue. Here are some of the photos I clicked last night. There are brief description of all samba schools and the stories told by them.

ENJOY THE SHOW!

School 1: Uniao da Ilha
Theme: The story of Don Quixote who replaced reality for a fairytale world he created for himself.

School 2: Imperatriz Leopoldinense
Theme: Brazil is a country blessed by men with a history of pain and joy. Brazil is a home of all Gods

India connection: The school presented a huge float on Buddhism with a golden statue of Buddha in the middle of colourful dancers. “The Buddha is not a person but a state of mind,” the singer crooned as the float arrived on the avenue.

The Buddha was followed by a float on Hinduism. With 20 Indian gurus sitting on big elephants, the samba song described Hinduism as a religion born from the religious elements of the winners (Aryans) and the losers (the indigenous) in a conflict 1500 years BC. “It comes from human experience. It investigates the depths of soul in self-reflection, concerned not to miss any experience.”

School 3: Unidos da Tijuca
Theme: The mysteries of humanity and secret codes of the future. 

This school was amazing. They had Batman skiing down the slopes of their floats, Spiderman climbing up the walls, Michael Jackson doing his Time Machine number and dancers who changed six dresses in 60 seconds. It was magical… you can’t be better than this in creating a fantasy yet telling a beautiful, true story. Our Bollywood brigade can learn something from this school…

School 4: Viraduro
Theme: The wealth, diversity and the magic of the monumental history of Mexico. 

It was an extravagant display of Mexico’s music, dance, smells and flavours. But the 7-year-old Samba Queen, who was supposed to be the star attraction, couldn’t handle the pressure and broke down in the middle of the parade.

School 5: Salgueiro
Theme: The history of writing and books. The school recreated the history of writing, describing it as an endless plot, retold and broadened over thousands of years. 

Indian connection: The school displayed floats on the Bible, HG Wells, Issac Asimov and  Kafka. But the loudest cheers and applause came when hundreds of dancers dressed in red and yellow saris arrived on the avenue. The last float had huge statues of Ganesha surrounded by all the major characters of the Mahabharata, which was described as a literary work that helps in the search of knowledge and paths of wisdom. The Mahabharata float was preceded by dancers, showing Bhagwat Gita as the “most loved text of the Hindus”.

School 6: Beija-Flor
Theme: The story of Brasilia, the capital city. Designed by legendary architect Oscar Niemeyer, an old communist, made a Brazilian dream come true when he unveiled the “new city for the new country” in 1960.

Though the show was magnificent, showing the city a cultural melting pot, the Beija-Flor show was tainted by a scam. A couple of days ago the governor of Brasilia was arrested on corruption charges. He could not make it to Rio to watch the Beija-Flor performance. Apparently, the arrested governor had given huge sums of the money to the school to make Brasilia the the theme of their parade. Probably, he watched it on TV in a jail in Brasilia.

And that’s me at the Sambodrome avenue.

That’s it. Hope you enjoyed the party. More later…

PS: The result of the Carnival competition was announced today. School No 3 -- Unidos da Tijuca, which mesmerised the audience with its story on mysteries, got the first place.