ROI (Rash on Idol) 1: First time ever...in the City of Dreams!

Hello Hi Namashkar!! Main hoon aapki dost Rashmi Vijayan...aur aap dekh rahen hai Indian Idol ...my way!!!!



24.04.07...02:00am...Chatrapati Shivaji Airport...Mumbai.



Mumbai...finally I was there!!!WOW!!! Too bad I landed so early in the morning I couldn't see the scenic beauty of the city (on second thoughts I have heard that every passenger landing in mumbai is greeted by the beautiful images of neatly clusterd slums!! HeHe!).


I reached Sahil hotel in Bombay central I was happy to see Kunal and Samrat standing opened armed to greet me. Kunal was soo happy to see me, after all the 'trouble' I went through trying to get to mumbai. Yea...loong story..I wasnt supposed to be there at Idol coz of some damn contract I had signed...took time to sort it out...and finally when things were ok and I got the green signal from SONY I packed my bags and left for mumbai!



I went up to my room and saw (actually no..I couldn't see them clearly coz the light wasn't switched on...c'mon the time read 3:30...the poor things were sleeping!!!) my roomies. The first two roomies I have ever had. Bhoomi Trivei from Baroda and Aparna from Bhubaneshwar. Real sweet girls. I have never stayed in a hostel or with anyone apart from family ever. And boy was I excited about this or what?? :)



Ok...fast forward al the minute deatails to the evening we were taken out(too bad I didn't have a comp access there to blog!!) We were told that there would be a boat party and stuff, so Aparna and I gave our names down for it. Bhoomi wasn't keeping well and also wanted to study for her exam so she didn't come with us. We (almost 50 contstants, which is not even half of the entire lot) were all crammed up in one 'excellent'...'luxurous'...NON A/C bus!!!!



Throughout the journey one of the associate producers, Rithika, kept making all of us give her energy and excitement shots for the camera!! "People...shout!!...scream!!...I want to see ..ENERGY...scream....INDIAN IDOL!!!!!!!AHHHHHH!!!" She actually made a few guys and gals put their heads out an scream "INDIAN IDOL!!!" .. hehhe!!! I wasn't a part of it and I'm glad about that.



We reached our destination…Gate-way of India! Finally..I saw at least one famous landmark in India. The crew members had a hard time trying to ‘tame’ us apart from being distracted by the glaring crowds that wanted to see what we were up to! I made friends with this other sweet girl from Bhubaneshwar, Shilpa, and found out that she was actually studying in Coimbatore (my hometown) in a college very close to my place! What a small world!



We all waited there by the GOI, clicked pictures of each other, and were slowly beginning to talk and get to know each other. I had known only the seven contestants from Dubai (Vani, Bhargavi, Karishma, Pooja, Prashant and Anna) and Bhavin from Mumbai, I had known him since last year when he too kpart for SRGMP, Middle east Muqabala with me.




So where were we….ah..clicking pics. Oh yes..Bhavin has this serious obsession to my darling little cybershot. He keeps wanting me to click pictures of his…or he clicks it himself…and also comes into the frame of every other pic I clicked!! God!! He was irritating me that day! Hehehe Moreover he kept saying…”kaise ghatiya chees detain hain yeh dubai ke log…ghatiya logon ke liye aise hi cheesen milti hai” …hehehe! Never mind!



After about an hour of waiting we finally got onto the boats, or what is known as in Dubai as the Dhow. It was prettily lit up with tiny lights around the corners, and was a double decked one (all dhows are double decked I suppose!). Any way, we made ourselves comfortable. I , as usual began socializing with everyone on top of the boat, then when I felt it was getting too boring I went down and that’s where the party started! Some one played a very horrible sounding deck, never the less we had MUSIC!!! And we started moving and grooving and shaking our legs like crazy!!! During the dancing I made friends with Sheena from Baroda, and excellent dancer and Geetesh from Nagpur, a sweet Iyer boy and not bad a dancer too! We had soooo much of fun I can’t tell you.



While we were dancing the reality producers were also having a blast shooting us, and then one of them asked us “what do you people wanna tell the guys who are back at the hotel and have not come here to enjoy with you’ll?” …all of us said they are missing out on something awesome and that we are having loads of fun blab la… but my answer to this next question was what the crew members loved…


Q: “Kya aapko lagta nahin hai ki wo log wahaan hotel mein practice kar rahe honge aur aap yahaan masti kar rahe hain ..to…kya kahenge aap iske bare mein?” (Don’t you think that the contestants who have stayed back at the hotel would be busy doing their ‘riyaz’ for tomorrow and you guys are having fun here…what do you have to say about this?)


A: “Hum log aapko achi-khasi masti walli footage dey rahen hain….wo log nahin!!” (we are the one’s giving you exciting and fun-filled reality footage…not them!! ;-)



I must say…that night I had fun like I have never had before…I danced like I never did before! Missed my friends in Dubai while dancing. Got reminded of how crazily we danced for one of our inter-college fests!!!




Any ways, after this masti I came back on top of the deck and people were busy eating this time. I was too tired to do anything so just sat on one side and admired the calm waters and the cool breeze going through my hair. Right across where I sat, infact directly opposite, there sat this cute guy, with a rather stern look on his face. He was gauging outside the boat and I guess he was admiring the waters too. But the look on his face was a one, a dejected and heart-broken lover would have. ‘Hmm…interesting’ I thought. This must be one interesting guy to talk to.



On our way out of the boat , I came to know that Bhavin was that ‘cute-guy’s roomie and he began talking to me about some wague topic, that was the first time he spoke to me. Then we got out, and al of us were walking towards the bus and I found out that Parleen Gill (that’s his name), was just 19!! (although he looked like he was in his early 20’s) And that he was doing Bsc. IT 2nd year at Delhi. Not bad, a good looking, smart, slightly introvert, intelligent boy…seemed like the person I would like to have as a friend.



So at the end of day one I had a ball of a time on the boat ride…and made 6 new friends! Aparna, Bhoomi, Shilpa, Sheena, Geetesh and Parleen (the last one still looked like he was in a shell...needed an ice-breaker session badly!) Not a bad start I must say…not a bad one at all!!!