So, where do you come from?

So, Vasantham Central in going to have this new programme calls "Roots" which will be sort of like "Amazing Race" meets "Who's your Grand-daddy?"

Basically, there will pick one 3rd generation Singaporean whose ancestors came from one of the 28 States of India, and pay their way to go back to where they came from to discover their roots. So, 1) Free trip to India! and 2) Meeting long lost relatives!. Why not, eh?

My preliminary research into the topic was interesting and intriguing enough to want me to delve further.

OK, so I called my dad and said," Do we have relatives in India?" and he gave me 1 (one) name, but that's research. If you want to know what that name is, ask Jia Jun, who can pronounce as well as spell it. :)

Anyway, long story short, I went to the audition yesterday, and found out that the producer was someone I went to Ngee Ann Poly with. This is one of those times nepotism could work in my favour, and I hope it does, heh heh. It was a short audition. Basically they wanted to know 3 things:-

1) Do you have a interesting story? Will it translate well into TV?

2) Can you speak the language well enough to take you through your journey. (Gulp!)

3) Do you look good enough on television to make people care about you and your quest?

The screen test was me sitting in 3 point lighting with a collar mike and Hameed, the producer, who looked cool and composed while I struggled to answer questions in Tamil, tripping over words like "motive", "ancestors" and "objective". Not very intimidating, actually it was like catching up with an ex- classmate, except I never catch up in Tamil.

Results of audition soon. I am not so confident that I will get it, because my story not so interesting. Apparently one of the other hopefuls was told by her parents that she has royal blood and wants to go back and trace her illustrious lineage.

How to compete with that, you tell me?