This is how it all began !

In January, a friend on Facebook mentioned something about the International Indian Film Academy Awards or rather the brown oscars happening in Toronto on 25th June this summer. That moment itself I knew that I had to go for this event considering I am a bollywood fan and when else can you get such an opportunity. Without any delay, I knew the one person I could call and plan this whole thing out. And so I did. And the next day I had managed to get 3 tickets for me and my friends and 6 tickets for my family. Oh yes, right now those tickets are worth a fortune ! And my friend came up with the brilliant idea of booking a hotel room for that night so that we could be ready for star hunting the next day. I knew my summer was going to be E.P.I.C (there is a huge chance of me using this word a lot, don't think I don't know any more words, it just that this word describes it all)

IIFA in Toronto is a huge thing for Canada and also for the stars as this is happening for the first time in North America (who would have thought). So to celebrate this, the city has made this one weekend show into a celebration for a month (how cool, right ? )  And there was Bipasha Basu coming for some of these events and also, there was a free concert by RDB, Culture Shock (a well know North American group) and Parichay.

So me and my friend(who is an even bigger bollywood fan) planned out our pre-IIFA weekend out !

On 18th June, a Saturday, we (me, my friends, my cousins--we love Bollywood) decided to meet up at 10 am for a 2 pm parade. My morning begun at 7 30am with my alarm screaming "Neha, wake up wake up......." (yes, my best friend set my alarm in her voice- an "awww" moment) and I woke up went through my routine without freaking out because I knew exactly what to wear (I am sure you don't believe that, but I went through the deciding what to wear phase the night before-couldn't risk being late). So I pulled up my jeans and wore this new  white summery shirt (it was going to be 26*C - that is HOT after more than 6 months of a negative temperature) . Did my nails, my hair and put on some make up (come on- I was seeing Bipasha Basu and there were chances of us being on TV as the crazy fans- I HAD to dress up and moreover, I LOVE dressing up) and as soon as I finished wearing my pink lipstick, I was ready to leave. Hung my sling, grabbed my camera, a water bottle and put on my comfortable sketcher shoes and I was out the door in the car. It was 9 30 and we got a ride till Scarborough Town Center from where we took our first subway train. Finally, after an hour or so we reached Union (we havent reached our destination yet) The celebrations were in Brampton (a city which is also known as mini Punjab) and is really far from where I live. So we took the GO bus from Union after grabbing breakfast and we were in Brampton by 12 30 pm. I had the map on my phone and we had to walk for a few minutes to reach Main street.

The sun was bright and I was feeling stupid to be wearing jeans when I could have been in my shorts. But that didn't drop any level of our excitement and we decided to check out the street. So after we took a walk through the gage park and freshened up a little at the city hall in the air conditioners, we left for the main stage at Queen St. and Main St. and decided to be there so that we could get the best view possible of the concert. But there was a parade that was going to pass by at 2 pm and all - Bipasha and the singers would be in the Flower City parade. I have never seen a live parade my entire life and I was so excited( I even bought a little hat with ribbons in the back flowing away for a dollar). Once the parade started, I went and watched it without any worry as my friend was saving a spot for us right in the front for the concert. I saw the clowns juggling, the clown car was too good it reminded me of a maruti 800 in india except for this one was jumpy (if that's even a word-i will post the video of the jumpy car), saw the Miss Brampton, and in the end saw two shimmering hot pink trucks coming and the banner saying IIFA. The crowd was screaming on top of their voices, I knew this is it. Its the float with the stars !!! And with my camera ready, as soon as the first truck passed and the drummers with their drums beating the Punjabi way. Finally, we saw the back of Bipasha Basu in this hot white saree ( white was indeed the color of the day). Oh bummer ! she kept looking at the other side as people were making more noise there and I was surrounded with aunties and their little kids who didn't care at all and me screaming alone wasnt too helpful, but hey I was glad I saw her at all ! And as soon as they passed, I knew what I had to do. I ran towards the main stage and just got in time (had to push a couple of people) to get my spot right in the front to watch Bipasha again and the concert.

Bipasha winning the hearts of thousands with her Beedi jalaile moves.

The sky was clear, the sun couldn't hide behind anything and we had to bear the heat. From where we were standing, we could see the Vanity van of the stars. So our eyes didn't care about the performances by the local artists on stage, we wanted to know when the actual program would begin. Finally, at 3 30 pm they announced Bipasha on stage and the song beedi jalaile was bursting through the speakers. And then, the gorgeous actress walked on stage in her beautiful saree looking as elegant as possible and did a few moves on her item song. And had won the hearts of many right there. She is really pretty and as my friend put it- not at all caky (rather than a blog, I should start making a dictionary) ! So she was up there talking about how great the audience is and how she loved our energy and then she said a few regular words that all stars say when on stage. And THEN she was about to leave as the MC was thanking her, me and my friend, made some noise and waved at her and she WAVED BACK ! That was when we felt that all the effort we took since morning was worth it. And after that, I had a new kind of energy in me. I just wanted to scream and the excitement reached new heights. She is one of my favorite actresses now ;)

So once she left we knew the concert is going to begin. And so it did. The first singer was Parichay (the guy who was involved in the making of Jat yamla pagla deewana- the one with the Deols). He sang all Bollywood songs and that was awesome as we could sing along. And he was so sweet, he came to all his fans and gave us all hi5's. He gave a star performance.












After him it was the culture shock. for those who have never heard about them, it is basically Baba Khan, Sunny Brown and Lomattic. They have some really good songs too-have done some remixes of songs by Britney Spears(BS), Lady Gaga(LG) and have been acknowledged by BS and LG - That's BIG ! Their performance was full of their own songs and was great too.

And finally, it was RDB's turn. They started their performance with Singh is King ofcourse, and came to the audience first and sang with us. Now that was truly a superstar thing to do ! And me and my friends instantly developed a huge crush on Manj (who is unfortunately married- though his wife is hot too). And with the Singh is king dance step (the one where you beat your heart twice and put it in the air, repeat it for 3 times and finally, act like you are steering a driving wheel in the air ) and the entire audience was doing it with them. It was BRILLIANT. We went crazy. Their performance was THE BEST. their body guard then picked 4 people (2 boys and 2 girls) from the audience who were called on stage and danced against each other and the one with best bhangra moves on stage would win a blackberry. I tried my best to get there on stage. And as soon as RDB left, so did we.

The crazy fans including me and my friends right in the front !

We all got burnt because of the sun ,couldn't feel our legs as we stood there from 1 30pm to 6 45pm, and had our throats hurting but none of us complained, because we had an amazing day filled with Bollywood fun. And this week, there is so much more to do and I can't wait. Just imagine if IIFA buzz event in Brampton was so good and got us crazy, what will happen on 25th June ?

This is all of them on Friday, we saw them on Saturday though

PS: Shrikala, I am glad you made me write this down. this is something I want to remember :) Thank you and *hugs*