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him. But that didn t matter. I didn t have to try too hard to like him. He was a pretty package for sore eyes six feet tall, wheatish skin, dark brown eyes, short cropped hair, clean shaven and a body that was totally ripped under his red shirt and baggy blue jeans. I couldn t take my eyes off him when he entered the  house . And neither could the nine other women. The cameras were all over the place. The producers had made us sign a contract earlier that made them superlords of our privacy while we lived in that house. They could have cameras in innocuous places, like the kitchen and closets and more apparent ones that would have cameramen zooming into our zits. We were supposed to behave  naturally , but were encouraged to be backbiting, ruthless bitches!"

"A known male TV celebrity who was hosting the show had been organizing us since morning. We had already picked out our rooms, unpacked our clothes and made small talk with the other girls before we were introduced to  the man . The girls ranged from eighteen years to the oldest being me. They were mostly in their twenties, looking for fame and a man to settle down with."

" Hi, girls, said the man, with an impish smile, and the host Aniruddh introduced us to Karan."

 Karan is a doctor. He is an NRI looking for the perfect Indian  bahu who should be

a mixture of the traditional and contemporary and & he thinks that one of you & might

"be her! Here the producers, who were standing away from the cameras that were pointed individually at our faces, motioned for us to smile. So we did."

"Aniruddh continued,  He is looking for the girl of his dreams, and we have decided to help him. We brought you girls here because we thought you were the most suited amongst the thousands who auditioned. But it won t be so easy to win his love, the host paused and we all were suppose to look interested at this point.  All of you will be assigned hard tasks every day and given points. The person with the maximum points gets to go on a date with Karan and the person with the minimum points gets & eliminated! At this statement, the girls nodded their heads and looked around checking out the competition. Suddenly the camaraderie had turned into rivalry."

"Aniruddh s finals words were,  So the more he gets to know you, the better he can make a decision. "

Some of the girls were smiling seductively at him thinking they might not have to do the task if they showed ample cleavage and a seductive smile. I was not in their league. I didn t want to show cleavage or want fame or his love. I just needed to be there to distract myself.

"Karan then left and Aniruddh announced to us,  Today s challenge is easy. You all will be given fifteen minutes to make a romantic dinner for Karan. All of you will go to the kitchen and prepare dinner for him. The person who has made the best meal and the best presentation will win the chance to spend time with him tonight. "

"After this, the producers broke us up into groups and took us to the kitchen. Most of the things there seemed too bright and inadequate to cook with. Like they had no pressure cooker or wooden spoons for stirring. We were given specific ingredients and asked what we would be making."

"The Gujju woman immediately replied that she wanted to make an elaborate vegetarian thali for her man. The eighteen-year-old replied,  Ya. Pause,  I can t cook. One of the producers immediately said,  Oh, that s great! we all looked towards him,  I ll assign making Maggi to her then, he clarified."

"So we started off making our respective dishes. We picked out our five ingredients from the list that we could choose from and started cooking in batches of two, with two stoves each and half of a kitchen sideboard to chop anything extra. I decided to make pasta. Arjun had taught me that really well."

"And since I already got chopped onions, all I needed to do was throw everything into a pan and stir till everything looked just about done. My dish was done in fifteen minutes. Seeing that I had finished my task, my cooking partner turned to me and said,  Are you done? Can I use your side of the kitchen? "

" Sure, be my guest, I responded. She introduced herself as Anjana and promised to"

chat up once her food was cooked. I took my bowl of pasta to the dining table in the

"adjoining room. The dining table I saw was being decorated by the producers of the show. My God, how many people were working on this serial, I thought suddenly."

" Kaveri, put it next to your name there, said a short plump girl with spectacles. I saw that there were names around the table with a dish coaster next to each."

Then I was asked to go to my room and dress up for the judgement in the evening.

"Since I had a few hours to kill, I decided to go for a walk instead, around the property. I sneaked out of the house and started walking."

"The place was really lovely. It was close to the beach and I could see the blue sea once I climbed up the hillock surrounding the property. I would have loved to come here with Arjun for a day. Oh God! Here I was, supposed to be getting him out of my mind and his name kept cropping up wherever I looked. I took a deep breath.  It ll take time, Kaveri, I thought to myself.  Take it easy. Just enjoy the moment and give yourself time. "

"Soon I headed back to my room to change and prepare for the night. I didn t know that there were hidden cameras all over the property, taping me even when I thought I was alone. I would learn of it the hard way when my walk as well as other antics would be on national television!"

"That night, we were called downstairs and had to make a grand entry with cameras showing our walk and body language to a connected TV (that we did not know about), where Karan was watching and commenting on each one of us."

"Karan entered the room where all of us were standing and Aniruddh announced,  Well, girls, you ve all prepared your best dishes and now the time has come for Karan to select which is his favourite. "

Then the producer told Karan to go around the table tasting each dish. So a camera followed him and the producer prompted him to talk about each dish as he wrote down a number on the respective nametag.

Aniruddh read out his lines from the teleprompter a few times and got them wrong. He was told to do a few more takes before he got it right.

" Now the time has come for Karan to decide whose dish he liked best. This person will be the first lucky girl to go on a date with Karan. And remember, you don t get a second chance to make a good first impression. So Karan, Aniruddh turned to the man and asked,  whose cooking impressed you the most? "

"Karan stood there and said with élan, as if he had rehearsed his lines,  Well, I m a real foodie, Aniruddh. I love all types of cuisine. I could have eaten everything. "

"But Aniruddh insisted that he make a decision, so Karan continued to make it seem longer,  Well, I really liked the thepla that was made by Anjana and the mutton curry that was made by Perizaad. "

The girls smiled at him and there were a few claps all around.

"Then Karan began with great flourish,  My favourite dish, however, was &  Then he paused for effect. The cameras were glued to our faces.  Shalini s biryani. "

"Shalini squealed with delight and walked up to Karan. They hugged. Aniruddh then said,  Okay Karan, but now you have to take another decision. "

"And Karan looked at him, surprised. He was directed to act likewise for the audience who would be watching later. I could almost hear the percussions of a dramatic moment as if in an Ekta Kapoor serial."

" You need to eliminate someone. There was another dramatic pause before he continued,  And I have the result of the lowest score here. "

"All the girls were now most worried. I was sure I would be eliminated for the awful pasta I had made. Why had I been in such a hurry? Oh god, I thought, please don t let it be me. I want to stay here for a few more weeks. And then a thought rushed to my head, which even surprised me I wanted to please this man! I wanted him to at least have one date with me!"

"But Karan said,  You know what, I have a surprise for all of you. And we waited with bated breath.  There will be no elimination tonight! he said cheerfully.  I will have a twenty-minute meeting with all of you before your next task, so there will be no elimination for this one. "

And we all had to cheer a few times because we didn t  get it right the first time according to the short plump woman who had become a sourpuss by now.

"Aniruddh announced that the winner and Karan would go off on their date now and the rest of us could go back to bed. But the date didn t happen immediately. By the time the final shot of the day was taken, it was already three in the morning and we were all drained, including Karan, who was in no mood to go on a date or even talk to anyone."

He walked off to his bungalow next door and we all went to our rooms to crash.

My first day with reality TV had left me completely exhausted and most satisfied.

Thirty-one

"Over the next few days, we all got to meet Karan and spend more than twenty minutes with him. All this was taped and recorded, to be edited later for the show, but the girls being new to this, were trying to behave as unaffectedly as possible given the circumstances. The producers helped us choose our best outfits for the meetings and the  naturalness of the entire show became more staged, more scripted, more planned. What we were supposed to say and do was left to us, but  how was made very specific."

"My meeting with Karan was fixed for the evening of the third day of our stay. By this time, he had met six of the women and gone on his official date with Shalini, which she had been talking about most high handedly to the rest of us. I wasn t too sure if she was actually a snob or was  told to be so."

"Somewhere, I had begun to like the idea of being around new people. I even wanted Karan to like me. For my date with him, I wore a pair of jeans, the same Fendi ones that made my butt look small, and a lovely turquoise silk top with black beads and accessorized it with silver hoops. It was given the approval stamp by the producer who casually remarked,  We don t have to worry about you. You have more experience than these twits. I felt pleased that I was not being compared to the rest of the women till I understood she meant in age and not in sexual prowess!"

"I expected Karan to be a complete idiot. After all, who would volunteer to go on a show for six weeks and be away from his work in the US as a doctor. Also, he was so young that I didn t expect our conversation to last too long. What would I possible have in common with this boy? So, I was pleasantly surprised when our date went rather well even though we d got off to a rocky start."

"The producers had different plans for him with different women. Shalini went bowling and go-carting. With Anjana, the Gujju woman, he went to a movie and had veg snacks at the food court. And the eighteen-year-old and Karan went to a discotheque and danced till wee hours of the dawn. Since I was the oldest in the group, they must have thought they should plan something low-key, otherwise my blood pressure would shoot through the roof and I might just flip over and die! So they sent Karan and me to the best five star hotel for a nice, quiet, non-exciting dinner."

"He picked me up in a black Fiat Linea, which also had cameras on the rear view mirror and inside the AC ducts. They presumed if anyone wanted to get naughty in the car, they could capture it for better ratings in their show. So our conversation was stilted and minimum till we reached the restaurant. Even though there was a camera on us for most part of the evening, it was at a distance so we could try and be more relaxed. But"

"there were microphones kept on the table, which were hidden under the salt and pepper"

"shakers for the producers to listen in on and guide us. Everything was up for reality TV. Once we ordered our starters and drinks, we began to talk naturally.  You know, I m some five years older than you, I said, as the first thing to get the issue out of the way."

" Yes, I know, he said, taking a sip of water.  But I find that fascinating. I feel that I will have so much to learn from you. "

"I think it was his tone, but I became a little conscious about my age then. But instead of being offended, I decided to play along. So I said in a voice that sounded like an old lady s while pointing my index finger at him,  Yes. I ve opened an academy to teach you boys the importance of good behaviour! "

But he didn t get it.

"He took offence and said,  I m not a small boy you know. I m a doctor! "

" Well, what is a doctor doing in a reality show? Got bored killing people? I added with a smile."

" For your information, doctors are supposed to heal people! he exclaimed loudly."

"Since he did not get sarcasm, I decided to go to the restroom to decide what to do with this night."

"Just when I stood up and said,  Excuse me, I m &  He interrupted me and said, completely shocked,  You re leaving? What the &  And I completed my sentence finally and said,  I m going to use the restroom. And we both stopped and looked at each other to gauge what the other was thinking before we said anything stupid again."

"Right then, a producer came running from the kitchen saying,  Very good, Kaveri. I like the sexual tension. Karan, you need to be a little more suave. And then she ran back into the kitchen."

"I suddenly felt I was Truman in The Truman Show, the movie where he didn t know that everyone was watching his life as a TV serial."

"Karan turned to me and said,  That s so absurd! As if I can be turned off and on on cue! "

" I know! I exclaimed, and then smiled at him and then we both burst into laughter."

" Did you see how upset she was? he asked, in between snorts. I sat down and laughed while having some water and nodded."

Just then the waiter came over with starters and I remembered Arjun and my first date.

"The starters had got mixed up and not only had we shared a plate after that, we had shared our lives as well. It was in this brief interlude that Karan noticed I was distracted and asked me so. I shook my head and changed my distant look to an interested one,  So, why have you left being a doctor to come join a reality TV show? I asked genuinely with a smile."

" Well, I was on a student visa. I needed a green card to stay on and work, so I finished"

my internship and then I was told to get out of the US so they could process my visa. I looked confused.

" The long and short of it is that I had three months to kill in India and I thought I should audition for this show and maybe meet some interesting women. He seemed genuine and nice. It wasn t as if a bratty boy from firang land had come to give me gyan. But I was just not into him. He didn t do anything to my heart like Arjun had. And then I had to shake the thought out of my head again, and I think he noticed and took a long gulp of his drink and looked away."

"We spoke on a variety of subjects and he surprised me in being quite aware about the topics I brought up. It wasn t as if it was a scintillating conversation that left me wanting more, but it was pleasant enough. It felt as if Aditi had set me on a blind date. But obviously I hadn t mentioned past relationships, the other women in the house, or sex. I didn t want a twenty-five-year-old to think I was a fool or worse, fixated with my ex."

But the topic about past relationships did come up.

"Karan spoke wisely while digging into a chocolate fondant we were sharing,  In any case, love is not a permanent thing. It s the friendship that is permanent. That you shouldn t let go of. "

" Are you saying that we should be friends with our exes? I asked, pointing my spoon at him."

" Sure. Why not? Once the messy stuff is outta the way, we can all just hang out, I say. Spoken like a true twenty-five-year-old man who didn t understand the depth of relationships or the gravity of broken hearts. I realized that maybe I did need to teach him a thing or two. So all I said was,  Life is a series of mishaps till you meet the right person. But if you don t kiss a lot of toads, you ll never find your Prince Charming! Apparently, Karan liked that and so did the producers, who beamed away at a table nearby."

"He licked his spoon and said,  You know, you and I could be good friends. "

 Is that your closing line to all the women? I smiled as I asked him. I d put down my spoon to signal I was done with the chocolate fondant.

He laughed. He had a lovely raspy voice. And he had an amazing smile. I was drawn to this boy!

" You caught me, he shrugged his shoulders and winked. Then he scooped out the last of the fondant with his spoon and offered it to me. I reached out and ate it and then he licked the spoon after me."

" I don t generally do that, he said, with a twinkle in his eye and I mumbled,  Tell me what else you don t do &  "

Back in the car Karan and I chatted more than we had on the way to the hotel.

" Kaveri, he said softly,  age is just in our head. I don t think of you as being older to me. "

And astonishingly I agreed.  I don t think of you as a young boy either.

" I really like you. I connect with you. I want us to meet again. Now, this would have sounded nice if we were on an actual date. But come on, we were on a reality show and we would have to meet. And this is exactly what I told him. But he looked away and said,  You know, Kaveri, I might be here because of this show, but I m not forced to say things I don t feel. And then, after a pause,  And I m not forced to like the girls. And I just like you. That s the truth. "

"That was a nice thing to say. I smiled,  I like you too, I replied. Then he saw me to the door of the bungalow and kissed my hand and walked away. I think I heard a producer yell,  cut! somewhere in the bushes but it didn t bother me too much. It had been a pleasant evening. I realized that not every man that you share a part of yourself with would be there forever. But if you don t share a part with every man you meet, you ll never know if there could have been a  forever ."

"When I went inside, as was the drill, the inmates grilled me to spill the beans about my date. I told them the relevant facts and left out the intimate details. After all, this was a competition. And I didn t want to lose so early!"

"The girls were an assorted bunch. They were all intelligent and educated. But that s where the similarities ended. There was a docile looking salwar kameez clad woman from Lucknow, a biker engineer from Bangalore, the eighteen-year-old college girl, the shrewd Gujarati woman from Mumbai, the Bengali who was a theatre artiste, the Punjabi woman who was a model, the woman from Hyderabad who was a web designer, the costume designer for ad films from Mumbai, the Delhi girl who was in the hotel industry and me."

"The girls were friendly to a point, but when we started discussing Karan, it became a little competitive. I could make out that some of them had actually fallen for the guy and wanted to win not just for the cash prize, the fifteen minutes of fame or the holiday getaway to Australia. They actually wanted the man! I felt a pang of jealousy, which went away quickly with a thought that he wasn t my  Great Love . But the fire in me had"

"been lit. Not only to win the man over, but win the game."

Thirty-two

"The next day we had to perform another task to win a longer date with Karan. This time there would definitely be an elimination. We left very early in the morning and went to a trekking site. Our task was to do a combination of rock climbing, swimming and trekking for a short distance. It had absolutely nothing to do with  how to win a man , but apparently it was good for the show. We were given a choice of costumes for the triathlon: a spaghetti top or full sleeve shirt with a jacket, capri track pants or tiny shorts, and a swimming suit or a bikini."

All the girls with great figures wore tiny shorts and bikinis. The rest were dressed more modestly but still showed skin. I doubt if any of them really wanted to win the task as much as to look good for camera.

"The sequence was to first rock climb a little to get to the top of the hill, then trek down to reach a lake and then swim across the lake to the