Assignment 7: Shaily, not Shelly.
“It’s a story about two deaf and dumb people who fall in love and get married. Their journey without any words but emotion.”
A Mumbai native describes the Bollywood film that sparked her passion for creative production. At 23 years old, Shaily (pronounced ‘Shelly’) talks about her first time away from her family, who live back in India. Living in a giant city with no family, she is fueled by people and crowds, it’s no wonder why I found her sitting comfortably alone at a table at 25 W Union Square–or the Starbucks right by Panera.
Her favorite place is Union Square, which is understandable because there’s no curfew here. She beams when I ask her about her favorite place: “This [New York City] is the city that never sleeps! Mumbai, where I’m from, is like the NYC of India...I’m comforted by a lot of people”–Shaily’s comfort in people does not strike me as odd, seeing as when I approached her and asked her for an interview, she took out her headphones, smiled, and agreed.
Born and raised more than 7,000 miles away, Shaily decided to study at The New School to focus her studies on film. When I asked her why, her response was: “it [TNS] had all the courses that I wanted, Plus, it’s located in NYC.”
The city that oozes with creativity is a source of inspiration for Shaily, especially since she has to divide her time between school and apartment hunting–which she regards as the most stressful thing about living in such an expensive city.
“I even started smoking!” she admits with a shy smile, “if my parents found out, they would kill me!
When I ask her about her family, Shaily gawks about her older brother. Not so much that he’s her brother, but because he’s living in Dublin, Ireland: “I’m more interested in visiting the city (Dublin) than my brother haha.”
Shaily’s charisma carries on throughout our interview as she even takes to interviewing me every now and again. “Is it true?” she leans in closer, “that New Yorkers are really rude?” she asks me, a native New Yorker. Without hesitation, I answer.
“Yes.”
“Ahah! Now I know it’s true” Shaily announces. “It’s just that people are always in a constant rush and some people do walk really fast.”
I’m not ready to walk out of our interview because she has such an inviting personality. Shaily, not Shelly. The youthful 23-year-old who still gets asked to show her ID. The Mumbai native who one day hopes to bring her parents over to her new home, to see Times Square and all the people in it, and hopefully, to a movie theater to screen her latest film.
What’s the film that inspired her?
“It’s a Bollywood film,” she proudly answers. She knows I can’t spell the film, let alone pronounce it. She grabs my pen and paper and writes in her neat cursive, “Rhamosh. It’s a story about two deaf and dumb people who fall in love and get married. Their journey without any words but emotion.”
