R•A•D

Zendaya

Today was such a rainy day but I took some great pictures!

A couple of the newspaper clippings I'm part of because of Uplift. ((So far)). My favorite is the one where I get a personal interview and picture because none of the other uplifters got that, even though many had the opportunity.

"Sometimes giving is better than receiving." 💙 Wish me a safe trip!

Yesterday was my last day with my grandparents here in the US. The house feels so empty without them but I'll see them soon when I go to India!

I used the songs from Ram-Leela (Romeo-Juliet), the tale of two star-crossed lovers.

One of the promotion posters for the TANA International Women's Day event held at the Royal Albert Palace on March 8, 2014.

I also competed in the Miss TANA Fashion Show/Beauty Pageant where I was in the Top 5 Finalists! However, as I got off stage when the program ended, lots of people thought I should’ve won 1st prize. A Telugu journalist even interviewed me because he liked the way I spoke in the question round of the pageant! A couple of weeks after the show, I was told that the reason I didn’t win is because I wore my chunni/dupatta (Indian scarf) in a non-conservative way, and also because I was on the youth committee so they didn’t want any controversy issues occurring. Though I didn’t agree with my loss, it taught me important life lessons. Mainly, I learned how to deal with certain people. I’m very grateful for this experience, especially meeting so many inspiring Telugu females.

Some photos from Naya Andaz, an extremely prestigious Bollywood dance competition held in New Jersey every year, accepting many participants from the tri-state area. This year was its last year being held in New Jersey; after the 2014 competition (held on April 26, 2014), it's going to be moved out to other states. My dance school (Kavi's School of Dance) competed at Naya Andaz for the first time on its last year. And we won! We won 2nd in the Elite category with our beautiful dance to a remixed version of Dhoom Machale Dhoom from the latest Dhoom movie, Dhoom 3. Our music mix was created by a very talented college guy, adding Indian classical, jazz, hip hop, and even belly/Arabic dance beats to the original Bollywood song. Our group was unique because it included people of an array of different races. There were Filipinos, African Americans, Brazilians, and more. Other dance groups were all Indian. The choreography, coordination, and costumes were impeccable and I thought we really deserved 1st or 2nd. I'm so glad to have participated in this competition because I absolutely love competitive Indian dance competitions. I love the energy backstage and the feeling I have when I'm on stage and everyone in the room is looking at me perform. All the hard work completely pays off. The second place was just the cherry on top of the delicious pie.

Plus it was super fun dressing formal and business-like for two days. I definitely got a lot of attention and questions from my classmates as to why I was dressed that way and where I was going. I’m pretty sure I advertised our Fbla chapter quite a bit when explaining I was going to miss school for two days to attend a business conference!

I love the top candid picture depicting the rush backstage right before a show. I was told that I handled my group very well as we were the most calm group backstage.