World Toilet Day

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am bathroom shy. You might even say I am in potty denial. I just don’t want anyone to know that I actually engage in certain activities, and I think that by denying them, they will ultimately go away. But today is different. I’m coming out of the closet as a person who has and who uses the toilet. Why? Because today is about a good case, it is about awareness. It is about the 2.5 billion people without access to sanitation. It is about a situation affecting almost half of the global population. And that is not funny. 

There is more to this than not having clean water or a comfy little seat to sit on. We all talk about human rights and equal rights and all of that, and meanwhile there is almost half a planet without the basic necessities a lot of us take for granted. Even if we wish we didn't have to. 

Please check out http://worldtoiletday.com/squat/ for more information.

I'm a Star!

I love it when it is all about me. I really, really do. And last Thursday was so all about me, it was amazing. It started on Tuesday with a phone call from a casting office, asking if I would be part of a TV commercial shooting in Agra on Thursday. I, being the camera whore that I am, immediately said yes. I had no idea what I would be doing, but really didn’t care. There would be hair, makeup and lighting. What more did I need I to know?

We left for Agra on Wednesday evening as we had a 7am call to the set. I was snug and in bed just after midnight, and in my usual fashion, could not sleep at all. Visions of cameras and craft services were dancing in my head and before I knew it, it was 5am and I my phone was ringing with a wake-up call. Then it was hair, makeup and wardrobe, before heading off to the set, the Taj Mahal. There were two different locations shooting that morning and after 5 minutes, we were told that we were needed at Agra Fort, and so we left after what has to be the shortest visit ever in the history of the Taj Mahal. I doubt anyone else has been there for less than 10 minutes. Ever.

We got to Agra Fort and that is when the chaos started. It turns out, I was not in the commercial, I was the star of the commercial. The star. S-T-A-R, and all in capital letters. I can’t explain it, but I love when the camera is on me. It just feels so wonderful, so natural and I lose all my inhibitions. Things I would never do in the privacy of my own home, I would gladly do in front of a camera. Like I said, I’m a camera whore.

Agra Fort is a pretty popular monument, a lot of it due to the fact that on a clear day, there are some pretty fabulous views of the Taj Mahal. Just take a look at the second picture. So a bit into shooting, the place fills with tourists. Suddenly, they forget about the monument and cameras are focused on us. At one point I was shooting my close-up while 200 or so people were watching me, pointing, snapping pictures. I was in heaven. All those people with all those cameras, all looking at me. Taking pictures of me. Pointing at me. And I have proof. My character had a camera. My own camera, so I was able to snap pictures of the whole event. Check out the crowd that was there watching me. Me. Me. Me.

It was just what I needed. This past year has been a rollercoaster of emotion and I had been feeling more down than anything lately. It was just the pick me up I needed. Just the tiny escape from reality that I needed to get myself up and running at full speed again.

Ready For My Close-Up

September 21, 2009


It is now 22:00 and I should be going to sleep. I need to go to sleep. Really, I do. I want to be fresh for tomorrow, alive and full of all those things that make me so incredible and easy to like. I was planning on being in bed on my way to sleep already over thirty minutes ago. That was the plan. But who can sleep on a night like tonight? Tomorrow is a huge day. HUGE.

It all started a couple of weeks ago. I was out having a bite to eat and reading Vanity Fair online, wondering what all I would have to do to actually get my name in the pages of Vanity Fair, but this is another story for another blog on another day, and suddenly someone interrupted me. He wanted to know if I was interested in being an extra in a movie. I said sure, sent off pictures of myself and basically forgot about it.

Then a few days later I got an email with details. It is for a movie titled “Eat, Pray, Love”, based on the book by Liz Gilbert. Parts of it would be filmed near Delhi, and star an actress named Julia Roberts. You know, Pretty Woman? Erin Brockovich? Notting Hill? Yes, THAT Julia Roberts!

So tomorrow morning I have a 03:00 alarm and a 04:00 pick up and then a ninety or so minute drive to the set, or as we in the biz are wont to call it, the location. And Julia (as we are colleagues now, I feel it is OK to just call her Julia and I will tell her to just call me Robb) will be there all day. I may be scrubbing floors with Julia. How many of you can say you have every done that? Maybe you have scrubbed floors, but not with Julia Roberts. And certainly not on film.

So I should be closing for now and get some sleep. Julia is probably tucked in and already in dreamland. Or maybe she is awake with the excitement of meeting me.

September 22, 2009

3am is really early. I mean, like REALLY early. I would normally be groggy from waking up so early, but the fact is I barely closed my eyes. My head was filled with all the memories I was about to make. Julia and I joking around the set, or perhaps comparing notes on India. She would ask me where she and Danny should go for the weekend and I would give her tips and offer to babysit the twins. She would confide in me that she is a bit insecure about her acting abilities and I would patiently reassure her and give her a big, big hug to make her feel better. She would tell the director that her new BFF should not merely be background decoration, but should play a more substantial role for the betterment of the film and meanwhile, back in her trailer, I would playfully clutch her Oscar for my imaginary acceptance speech while she took pictures for her Facebook page. And oh, how she and I would laugh at our private jokes while everyone else looked on in jealousy.

I arrived on location to the signs of “No personal photography” and a list of rules:

• Strictly no personal photography is allowed on set
• Please deposit your mobile phones and cameras with the designated person
• No mobile phones to be carried to set
• Any phones or cameras on set will be confiscated
• No personal food or drink is allowed on set
• Smoking is banned on set
• Please remain silent and disciplined when on set

 I saw the signs, as they were hanging from and leaning on anything that didn’t move, took pictures and then changed into my costume and waited for Julia. Actually, we waited and waited and just before lunch we were all taught a chant we would be using in a scene. See, we were playing people from the ashram, and supposedly people from ashrams chant. A lot. So we chanted… Govind bolo hari gopal bolo… Radha Ramana hari gopala bolo... over and over and over again. And then we chanted some more, just to be sure we all had it and could do it while clapping. The religious experience of walking and chewing gum. After we all kind of got it, we were taken to the set and I picked my cushion and sat myself down. There were supposed to be some empty spaces so I was told to keep the one next to me free. Five minutes later, I was told “the actress will be coming in and sitting there”. THERE? Next to me? ME? This shot had all the makings of a close-up and my pillow was going to be next to hers. This was it, the start of our lifelong friendship. It was too good to be true. I could not believe my luck. And rightly so. I was asked to stand up and was moved a couple of feet away. I would be less than two meters from “the actress”, but that is not the same as being next to and in the same frame with. I was robbed.

So the parts with Julia were done and then we set up for all different kinds of shots. I got chosen for the close-up. Imagine if you will, me sitting and clapping while the camera which was located about two feet away from my face filmed me. Up close. I was instantly glad I had thought to trim any unsightly hair. It was amazing. The more I am in front of a camera, the more I realize I not only love it, but I was born to be there.

Well, we finish the shoot and are told by the director that it was a wrap for the day and that “tomorrow we will shoot swami and the band” just as I was standing up. That was when a voice from behind me laughed and said “swami and the band?” and I turned around saying something like “sounds like a 70’s band” and there I was, face to face with Julia Roberts and we locked eyes. And there it was, that smile beaming at me. AT ME! And then she told me in that voice of hers, “you are the single most devastatingly handsome man I have ever laid eyes on in my entire life”, but she said it using the words “remember the 70’s” and I swooned. I have seen that smile a gazillion times on film, but it just does not capture how truly spectacular and amazing and big it really is. And this wasn’t an “acting” smile, this was the real deal and it was fabulous. I will never wash my eyes or ears again.

My New Roommate

I have a new roommate. He’s quite cute, very quiet and has a thing for bugs. I don’t mean he likes them, I mean he eats them. He chases them around the wall and before you know it, there he is, chomping away on a yummy moth.

My house is surrounded by parks, and in these parks live all sorts of creatures from peacocks to deer to bats to ducks to moths. As my living area opens onto a terrace I keep locked and to myself at night, I tend to keep my window and front door wide open with the ceiling fan airing things out and of course, a light on. And what happens when there is a light on in a dark area? It’s a mini-creature circuit party. Yes indeed, the bugs come out at night and so does my roomie, a little green gecko.

I don’t know where he spends his day, because he is always gone when I wake up, but as soon as the light comes on in the evening, he takes to his battle station at the top of the wall, just under the ceiling and waits. And then they come, moth after moth. I find it fascinating to watch him chase them down. He stalks them not unlike a cat and then suddenly moves so quick that if you blink, it is all over. I was taking picture of him earlier with the zoom and there he was, post moth, licking his lips. Seriously, he was licking moth innards from his little lizard lips.

But I have to say, I think he is getting a bit flabby around the edges. Hanging out at the light has made him a bit lazy. He no longer gets exercise looking for them, he just hangs out until they fly almost directly into his mouth. And he eats them by the dozens. Just this evening I have already counted 12, and there he is, still on high alert and he is just a tiny thing. I am worried he is going to eat one too many and I am going to come home to gecko covered walls. Or worse, get partially digested moth bits all over me.

Most of the people I know hate the lizards. A few are terrified of them. I love them. I think they are just so cute. And they eat bugs before they have a chance to fly into my mouth mid snore. I sleep easier knowing I have someone, or some thing, to watch over me. Once when living in Defence Colony, I tried to catch one, to put him outside where he could be with his little lizard friends and family. I only managed to break off the end of his tail and I was immediately filled with remorse. Every time I would see him for weeks after, I would apologize and try to start a conversation, but he wanted nothing to do with me.

And so now, I lavish all my attention and moths on the one that came for dinner a week ago and simply refuses to leave.