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Actress Priyanka Chopra says she had a life-altering experience
when she visited Tenga Valley in Arunachal Pradesh to record a
special programme for a news channel. After her trip to the valley,
she realises people in the film industry are too insulated and
their entire time is taken up with shooting and catching
flights.
"I saw nature at its fiercest. I had earlier seen the tsunami...
on the same date, July 27, two years earlier. Isn't that bizarre?
I realised we in the film industry are too insulated. We're all
taken up with shooting and catching flights. I feel if you want to
keep it real for yourself, you can. As much as I love the luxurious
life I like the thought of roughing it out once in a while,"
Priyanka told IANS.
Recalling her trip for NDTV 24x7, she said: "The funniest thing
was, a week before I went to Tenga Valley, there had been a bomb
attack on Guwahati. I didn't want to take the easy route and go to
Ladakh and Siachen or the other places where our soldiers are
stationed. I wanted to go somewhere no one else had. I wanted to
show TV viewers where our soldiers have to be to fight for us.
"People don't even know Tenga Valley exists. It's the absolute
border on the east. No one wants to go there because there's a lot
of insurgency in that area. We had to drive from Guwahati to Tejpur
and then to Tenga Valley."
Priyanka'a mother accompanied her.
"I really wanted my dad on the show because of his army connection.
But he wasn't well, and I didn't want him to go through the
gruelling journey."
On her way back she was stuck in a traffic jam due to a landslide.
"After doing the show with the jawans at Tenga Valley we were
warned not to drive back in the night in the pouring rain. So we
left at 3.30 a.m. Three hours later we were stuck in a landslide.
"A massive part of the mountain had fallen on the road. We had to
spend nearly 12 hours stuck in the long line of traffic without any
signal for the cell phones."
Once Priyanka got a hang of the situation, she had loads of fun.
"Thankfully, there was an army mess close by. We telephoned for
help. The bulldozers came in half an hour. But it took them eight
hours to clear the landslide. Thankfully, because of the mess, we
had food and we distributed it in cars all around us."
The other travellers stuck in the landslide must have had a field
day having Priyanka in their midst.
"For a while they took pictures of me, and the landslide. Then they
got bored of both. The funniest thing was, after the landslide was
cleared at 7 p.m. we left... only to be stuck again because the
river Brahmaputra flowed on to the road.
"That was scary because the locals were all around us. We had to
get out of our cars and get into a bus that was arranged. I've a
video recording of all the adventure that we had. By the time we
got to Tejpur it was almost morning. We were exhausted."
Priyanka, who is climbing the success ladder fast, is also moving
into her new house.
"My interior designer Suzanne Roshan says at the end of October but
I don't think it will happen before November-December. I'm very
eager to move in," said Priyanka who has "Drona" and "Love Story
2050" in her kitty.
By Subhash K. Jha
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