Start To My Crazy Journey

It’s that fateful first day on the job, where you meet your new boss, your new colleagues, and hopefully your new friends. I was so nervous getting on the plane to our new destination, I felt like it was my first day of school all over again, I was about to start the most exciting chapter of my life here in India.

First destination Goa, it was my first trip here and as I’m from Mumbai and the rest of the team is from Delhi, I had to wait at the airport for a while and I could not miss these five rugged men coming down the escalator.

Gunjan is my Producer who in fact I had met during my audition, and his first words are to me I’m really nervous about this I’m taking a big risk on you, GULP, that was a sure nice way to make me feel comfortable.

My hands are sweating now as I meet my director for the first time, Chirojit but known to us he is Chiro and all he wants to do is start shooting immediately, then I meet the relaxed cool camera crew who are just going with the flow, Mayukh, Raju and Badal. I later learn that Mayukh is a perfectionist at his art and does not say much but when he does its hilarious, he says it in Hindi and then they have to explain it to me through their onslaught of laughter, but it’s still just as funny.

Raju speaks little English but the little he does is very good, and we talk a lot of rubbish and laugh all the time, he is a true vegan even his toothpaste is animal friendly, I could not believe it I I did not even know things like this exist, as for, Badal speaks no English so our conversations are limited to smiles.

The journey begins and we start shooting, the nerves start falling away and the sheer excitement of being able to explore Goa starts settling in, our place is about an hour from the airport, and what a fantastic place it is, and I’m not just saying this for the show, its perfect small boutique hotel overlooking the river, it’s so tranquil and peaceful for the other guests, I of course have to get down to work.

There is no time for rest and once we have shot the property we head out to explore some of the nightlife in Goa, I got so excited about the shopping that I almost went off and did my own thing and forgot all about the show, but that is what Goa does to you. That night I met some really interesting people, and found that there are still a lot of hippies in Goa.

At about twelve the boys decide to go for dinner, and as I discover all they want to ever eat is Goan, as I’m not accustomed to spicy food I stick with usual continental cuisine, but am quite disappointed as when their food comes its, gorgeously done with lots of colour and sauce and looks delicious.

Goa is so alive at night and even by one o clock as we were heading home; there was no sign of the restaurants emptying out or street s quieting down, except for me who was dead to the world on my way home so tired from the first days shooting.

To my shock and horror we start at seven the next morning Gunjan insists on getting the early morning light, and I have to admit it was the most perfect light not to cold and not too hot, and as I discover Gunjan is not as scary as I thought in the beginning but I really start warming up to him as he always making sure if I’m comfortable, and happy at all time like a real over protective big brother.

It’s my first swim in the sea and its magical so warm not like many seas around the world where it’s just too cold to swim in, and I think by my standard s I’m too pale so I go suntan a bit. The best part is that there are all these sun bed with or without umbrellas are just available to you for about 100 rupees, its insane you can get anything on these Goan Beaches from great food to cocktails to these sun beds, I have visited many beaches in the world and none of them have these kind s of facilities, it is often illegal.

I get to do so many cool things on this trip, I got to hire a big motorbike and drive it around Goa, the owner was very nervous in the beginning when I pulled off at breakneck speed and then suddenly stalled. I have driven motorbikes before but they were all automatic and not nearly as big. It took me a while to get the hang of the bike and by the time shooting started I was queen of the road, you can hire bikes and scooters all over Goa which makes it so much more fun to explore the place and like I mentioned before its all super cheap.

One thing I can’t get over is the wonderful market places and shopping. There is this Wednesday flea market which is huge and you can buy anything from clothes to CDs to Movies jewelry designer sun Glasses I could go on forever, one thing I also learnt is that you need to be a good bargainer in order to get the best deals for yourself.

There are so many different tourists in Goa and it just keeps getting bigger and better each year, there stories are so bizarre and fun of how they got to Goa in the first place, some are just on Holiday and some end up owning business and staying for long period s of time, and after spending some time there I can totally see why, I’m a little tempted myself.

An incident I cannot believe happened to me, on one of the last days of shooting my Blackberry Bold was stolen on set, of course it was my own stupidity brining my phone on set, because once you get started shooting its chaos and I leave my stuff everywhere. I had totally written my phone off and was so devastated but Chiro to the rescue went back and spoke to the village elder, and he stood there proudly and said things like this never happen in my village we are good honest hardworking people, so he told my Director to leave his phone number and he will get that phone back. We are busy shooting and two hours later Chiro gets a call saying that he has the phone and we can come collect it when we finished shooting. I could not believe this clearly only in Goa what a magical place. In most countries I know this would have never happened, and I learnt a valuable lesson, not to take my phone on set but leave it in the car.

An incredible amount of hard work goes into shows like this, but in saying that having a great fun team makes the journey and exploring of these places not feel like work at all. This was only the North of Goa, and now I can’t wait to see what new adventures lie in store for me in the South of Goa.

Until then I bid you all farewell, and I will see you soon on Life’s a Beach.