My Journey to the Shore of Success

[Music]

on 8th of november

during a very turbulent time of curfew

in a leader representation

in those days as it was already pretty

cold out there and people couldn’t step

out because of the curfew

my mother couldn’t get the proper

medication and in that

process when i was born i was born with

a lot of cold and infections

uh so much that the doctor recommended

that i need to be

away from anything that is remotely cold

and that would also mean that i have to

stay away from

having bath and you know i had to have

like uh hot towel bath and

i had to be away from potatoes uh rice

and imagine i’m a bengali

that’s my staple diet and i can’t even

have that right

but uh so my mom she uh

she told me that you can’t live like

this she said my daughter will not look

like this

she actually put me pursuing imagine

swimming swimming

involves being inside the pool which is

like so cold right

but uh she said and mary petey said

so she put me pursuing and

i think that was uh that was the first

ripple of my life

because uh eventually i turned out to be

a national swimmer i became a national

record holder

i found the five limited series in the

arabian sea i swam the 14th

river racing and then i was also

practicing for 35 years

series uh and i wanted to be the

youngest of

uh swimmer to cross the english tunnel

you know but that didn’t happen because

of

you know lack of funds but one day i

will definitely

do that one day i will uh cross the

english channel

in my own way and with my own money and

i’ll definitely do that

but yeah so uh that thing that phase of

my life i realized that

it’s just a small ripple which

eventually uh

i think i started making bigger waves

and

uh that was the first phase of my life

the other phase was

during my childhood in my school days uh

so when i was in school you know my uh

my teachers

used to believe a lot i have had very

good of a

very good set of teachers and at the

same time i’ve had

extremely uh teachers like you know who

demotivate you

who would not really encourage you and

they will put you down

and there was a time when you know i

would uh i would love to dance i would

love to be

on stage and i would like to uh

perform on all the concerts and

everything but

because some somebody’s parent

who was supposed to be the chievous of

that particular concert

uh they’ll come for the concert and i

was just removed

i was like i was in the front and i was

supposed to be the protagonist of a

particular dance performance or a stage

performance

and they’ll just remove me and without

giving any proper explanation

uh i used to ask themselves why would

you do that as to ask my

uh my dance teacher why would you do

that they said

no no it’s okay you know let the other

girl

she’s better and i knew that she’s not

better she’s not good at

all but they would do it right because

you know their parents

were the chief guest of the particular

show

and uh after a particular time i

realized that

uh my talent my hard work will never go

noticed

if i have such teachers in fact there

was a time when

during my serving days my coaches

left me at the train you know like just

at the radio station and they said you

can’t go the train

i said nice sir they said um it’s not

allowed

you can’t just go because you did not

give that two thousand rupees

i was like but i don’t have that money

they said no but you cannot move the

train the other people have booted the

train because they’ve uh

given the 2 000 rupees and has to be

like okay then so

again my merit will not work here my

target will not work here

but i had i was blessed with good set of

friends you know so

they said if puja doesn’t go the train

we’ll also not

go to the tournament you know i think

those

things those teachers those those

incidences

initially i thought you know the world

is so cruel why why would

they behave with a child like this but i

think those things those

incidences in my life they uh

the kind of i’ll say they made me a

stronger person who i

am right now and they made me realize

that um

after a point talent is all you need you

might have

uh you know like uh

influential parents of yours but after a

point only one thing will matter and

that is your talent

so that is another phase of my life

which uh i think

it’s something which i would like to

talk about is uh

it’s just a phase of life it’s just i

think uh

people might just create ripples in your

life but they are

not uh you know sure that you might just

create a bigger tsunami in their lives

but i feel um this is you know it

happens with a lot of people out there

a lot of school kids might be going

through this and they may not be sharing

this with

you know their parents or their family

and i think it’s very important to you

like for you guys to understand that

this is just a case right

this is just the beginning there’s more

and there are a lot of things that are

gonna happen

so that was about my childhood uh now

i’m gonna tell about

my acting career how it all started what

ripples

were made so that i can make some really

big waves out here

so i was uh going to pune i wanted to

explore the city which will be the right

place to

study i wanted to pursue my studies over

there my parents said that

they can only afford uh through

scholarship

so i’ve gone to pune to check out all

the details of my

future dreams and future studies and

everything and

uh there in pune there was an audition

which was happening for roadies it’s a

reality show

where all my friends were going they

said why don’t you join us you’d be

super for the show and i was like i

don’t know what rodis is all about i

don’t want to be a part of this show

and uh what do i have to do and they

said

it’s okay chill just come uh tag along

and

we are very sure that you will get

through it it’s like okay and i’ve

always been you know like i used to

always go with the flow wherever

you know destiny used to take me and i

told my mother i said no mama

i have to go for this reality show

called and she’s like okay

now and i was like uh tv

only and uh do you get a bike

you know so that’s what i had told my

mother she had no clue what was it all

about and she said okay fine even i’ll

come for the audition

so she came along with me she stood

there with me for the entire duration of

the auditions

and just imagine none of my friends got

selected only i got selected for

the show and my mother was like okay

you’re selected so what next i said now

i have to go

uh for this show she’s like okay fine

now get me the red bike

i said okay i’ll get you the red bag and

it so happened that i eventually won the

red bike

i i got what she wanted and uh

from roadies i got an offer from star

plus they

uh they asked me why did you become an

actress and i was like i am not an

actress i don’t know

how to act and they said um

we’ll see what has to be done so i went

for the audition

and the scripts were in gujarati okay i

mean it was a hindi

like it was a hindi based show but uh

the dialogues had a little bit of

gujarati

and i was like you’re taking the wrong

girl i’m a boy i’m not a gujarati

you know they said ma’am just give it a

try and just give it a try once

i was like okay i’ll give it a try and

i just didn’t know i went again with the

flow

uh i thought okay let’s just try

there uh my parents knew that i have

gone

for a shoot for rudy’s the date was 8th

of june my return ticket was on the 11th

of june

and here i had already signed the

contract of stampless

and i don’t know how to tell you know

like how to

break it to my parents because they knew

that i want to be an i.s officer they

knew i want to pursue my dreams

as an officer i wanted to serve the

society you know

our nation and i was i was just

like i was happy but i was very scared

to tell it to my parents

uh and i didn’t know how will i stay in

this city

so people from roadies they helped me

they gave me a place to stay

they gave me money they gave me food and

they said puja

just try just try and see if it works

out for you

and i said okay i’ll just try

and then i started doing this popular

show and i do not

take that you know flight back to nagpur

i remember 11 june i still did not board

the flight and i still have the boarding

pass with me

because that boarding pass meant that

i actually let go of that flight

i waited for my turn and i waited

uh for destiny to play uh you know its

own tune

and take me along its flow so that was

another part of my acting career i would

say

i mean it’s not a part of my acting

career that was my

uh my acting career how it began i

didn’t realize that these small

things that was happening with me they

will create such a big impact in my life

in fact i kept on telling other people

my parents and my family members that

the day i stopped getting happiness from

this particular field i come back

and touchwood till this day i haven’t uh

felt sad lonely or left out in this

field and

these are the small things you know like

i think uh

sometimes you just feel what is

happening where is your life heading to

because that time at that particular

time you know when i was selected for

the startlist show

i i had to lie i just thought that what

would i do

uh i just can’t tell my parents that i’m

working for a new show

and uh it’s you know in tv show what

happens you gotta work for two three

months and then the show comes on here

right

so for them for three four months they

didn’t see me what i was doing

they didn’t they knew that i was doing a

show but then

they just didn’t see me on tv so that

time it feels like a very turbulent time

because

your family is the most closest thing

and you can’t live with them right

and that’s when i realized that

that again that you know those those

little uh ups and downs

where you feel that you know the water

is above

your head you’re not able to breathe

you’re drowning but

sometimes it’s not the way it sometimes

it’s not

that what you say it’s the other way

down it’s actually you’re probably

rising higher really swimming through

your life

and probably reaching the shore out

[Music]

there