The past few months for me have been a rollercoaster ride straight out of a Bollywood flick! Growing up, like most desi kids, Bollywood played a big role in my life. From its perfect romances to fashion trends; from cheesy dialogues to its typical villains; from its rich-girl-falls-in-love-with-poor-boy storyline to the family drama – Bollywood captured every bit of this little girl’s imagination. It made her dream – of breaking into song and dance at every occasion, overcoming small-town barriers to go abroad, waking up with perfect make-up, and finding her perfect romance.

Unfortunately, as years added to my age it became quite evident that in real life the opposite was more true. The reason the masses adore Bollywood so much is because it gives them an escape to a world where everything is achievable, hardships last only so long, you live like a queen without working your a** off, you can have a fairytale romance, and lovers always unite in the end. Nonetheless, real life isn’t formidable enough to undermine my love for reel life! And so, there is emotion, family drama, suspense, action, romance and dancing – all packed together in my life’s power-packed Bollywood movie production! So grab some popcorn, and read on…

Act 1: Small-town Girl in a Desi World

Not surprisingly, most Bollywood stories focus on the part where protagonists are past their acne-infested & hormonally turbulent selves. Naturally, I don’t have a lot of reference points to compare a Bollywood childhood with mine. But I would like to believe that mine may come pretty close to being the prototype if ever Bollywood needed one!

I had a very happy childhood centered around my grandma, with immense emphasis on academics and overall personal development. As long back as I can remember, I woke up before School for basketball training, attended school and walked to art, music and dance hobby classes afterwards. Happiness was unlimited and always within hand’s reach. Fast-forward just a bit and came high school. Only second to Bollywood, something else that resonates with every desi kid are ‘coaching classes’ for Engineering and Medical school. And that became my life for what were to be my last couple of years in India.

to be continued…