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