Culture, Connection, and Creation with Jhansi
SHOW NOTES
In today’s episode, Jhansi discusses:
Her recent move from India to America
The process of creating her music video “We Break Up Because of Family Reasons”
The challenges she faced as a musical theater artist in India
The cultural expectations and challenges of arranged marriages
Loneliness and struggling to find connection in New York City
Setting goals and exploring many interests
Jhansi is a musical theater director, creator, performer, lyricist, and composer. She takes her audience through a range of emotions from unexpected laughter to abrupt tears. Her candid performances focus on the stirring themes of youth, marriage, women’s equality, aspirations, anxiety, desperation, and hope, something that the masses can relate to in their own lives.
Jhansi was the First Indian to be accepted into the BA in Musical Theatre performance program at Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore. She was also a part of Queens of Comedy, which aired on TLC, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. She performed in one of India’s biggest Broadway shows, Aladdin, as Iago. She has directed and created multiple Original Musical Theatre shows including "Don't Eat My Face Pizza" and "Terrified of Twenty-Five”, along with countless collaborations for Broadway style music videos and massive scale festivals.
Jhansi moved to the United States to be a part of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in NYC as a lyricist and was also invited to become a permanent member of the American Comedy Group, Broad Comedy.
Follow along on Jhansi’s journey: @thejhansiway
TRANSCRIPT
Jessica
Hello and welcome to The Story Project. Today’s guest is Jhansi, a Broadway-Style director, creator, performer, lyricist, and composer. She takes her audience through a range of emotions from unexpected laughter to abrupt tears. Her candid performances focus on the stirring themes of youth, marriage, women’s equality, aspirations, anxiety, desperation, and hope, something that the masses can relate to in their own lives.
Jhansi was the First Indian to be accepted into the BA in Musical Theatre performance program at Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore. She was also a part of Queens of Comedy, which aired on TLC, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. She performed in one of India’s biggest Broadway shows - Aladdin as Iago. She has directed and created multiple Original Musical Theatre shows including "Don't Eat My Face Pizza" and "Terrified of Twenty-Five”, along with countless collaborations for Broadway style music videos and massive scale festivals.
Jhansi moved to the United States to be a part of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in NYC as a lyricist and was also invited to become a permanent member of American Comedy Group, Broad Comedy.
In today’s episode, Jhansi discusses her recent move from India to America, the process of creating her full production music video, the challenges of a musical theater artist in India, arranged marriages, loneliness in New York City, setting goals and exploring many interests
Please enjoy this conversation with Jhansi…
Alright, hello, Jhansi.
Jhansi
Hello!
Jessica
It's so nice to meet you. I literally met you one minute ago. So hi, nice to meet you. I'm so happy to have you here. I was saying that I've been watching your videos all morning and I have your songs stuck in my head and I just feel like energized by them and so excited to talk to you about your journey and your story and your creative process and.
Jhansi
Mm -hmm. Hi. Hello.
Jessica
everything. So thank you so much for being here and hopping on this journey with me with no real clarity or structure or anything.
Jhansi
I'm really happy to be here and I'm happy to have a nice, heartfelt conversation on a Sunday morning. It's going to be really nice.
Jessica
So am I correct in that you recently moved to Manhattan? Like this year?
Jhansi
Yes, yes. So I recently moved to America this year. So I was, I just got my O1 two months ago. And after that, I've properly moved and I was in a, I was in New York for a couple of months last year as well. But now I'm here because I got the visa. Thank you. Thank you. It's.
Jessica
That's so exciting. Congratulations. That's a big deal. That's obviously a very big deal. Yeah. And I'm sure that was a ton of work and money and all of it.
Jhansi
So yes, so much money and so much work. Like, I don't know if you're familiar with the O1 process, but it is about a thousand page application where it's just proof of how amazing you are. So it's just proof you are compiling and you need to give a thick ass book and make it like, yeah, I'm impressive. Let me come. Thank you. That's what it is.
Jessica
and they saw it and they were like, yes, in fact, you are impressive. Please come. We're happy to have you. Yeah, that's amazing. So, all right. What made you wanna move over to America?
Jhansi
Thank God. Thank God.
Jhansi
So I do musical theater and I've been doing that in India for about eight years. Before that, I, so I grew up in India. I went to Singapore to do my bachelor's degree in performance in musical theater. So I did that for three years. It was a three year bachelor's degree and I came back to India and I was like, well, shit.
I am so good at performing something that there is no market for. So I spent eight years like kind of slowly trying to figure out what the heck I'm going to do, realizing in the middle that, oh, maybe if I want to be performing musical theater, I need to start writing it because there's nothing to be cast in over here. So I slowly started writing. I started with parodies, political parodies, just like the easy stuff. And then I built up to, okay, not just lyrics, but maybe now I can also compose and then...
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
started doing a lot more of that, then started writing whole ass musicals, then I started doing a lot more video production, like Family Reasons, what you saw. That's actually the biggest thing I've done, but doing it for so long, I just was like, before I get married off, because again, I am from India and that's a thing. So I wanna experience living in New York and in America once and see what that's like. See what the hub of musical theater actually is like.
Jessica
So amazing.
Jessica
Wow, did you have a background in music or did you learn it more as you realized you wanted to be making your musical theater pieces?
Jhansi
I had no background in it. I just knew how to perform. So it was very much a trial and error and like you throw yourself in the deep end and be like, well, shit, now I got to do it. And then you end up making sure you do. Yeah.
Jessica
Wow. So what was your musical theater experience like in India?
Jhansi
It was very lonely is what I'll say because there's nobody doing it. So anything I was doing, I was doing alone. I was just, okay. So in India, there've been two massive productions. One was, and these are all by Disney. So Disney did Beauty and the Beast in 2015 and I was still in Singapore then. And sometime around 2018, they did Aladdin. So in terms of being hired to do musical theater,
I have only been hired once because that's the only one show that happened in the eight years that I was there. So it was a lonely process. I started trying to figure out what are parallel things I could do. As I started writing, I was like, okay, so there is a booming storytelling movement in India where people just like go and droves to watch storytelling shows, kind of like how comedy people go to watch comedy, people go to watch storytelling. So I started like making a name for myself as like,
Jessica
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
a new thing. Oh, Jhansi does music storytelling, which is musical theater. But I would just be there like tell a whole ass story through a song. Sometimes they'd give me a nine minute slot, sometimes a five minute slot, and then you'd like cater to it. But that's how I started making parrots. I did a bunch of music comedy in India as well. So there was this TV show that I got on. It was called Queens of Comedy. It was on TLC. And that also gave me a lot of like boost.
And it allowed me to be more visible to people as a person who's telling stories through music, be it funny, be it not funny. Yeah. So it was lonely in a nutshell. But now I'm no longer lonely.
Jessica
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Jessica
Oh, that's so good. When so when you say you were lonely, like, there aren't that many opportunities. And within the professional world, there's that loneliness. Did that also kind of permeate into the outside world with family and friends? Was there kind of a misunderstanding? Like, were you did you feel misunderstood in what you were trying to pursue? Or was there an understanding with that?
Jhansi
I think there was an understanding between my family and friends definitely. They were always just very concerned that I am trying to build a sand castle where there is only water.
Jessica
Hmm.
Jhansi
because they could see me angry, frustrated, because I would try and try so hard and I would really not lead anywhere. And they're like, why don't you consider this just a hobby so you can relax a bit and then maybe pursue psychology or something instead so that you have something that gives you more purpose so that you're not frustrated and anxious all the time. Not all the time, but like at the core of it, if you're trying to push a mountain, you will end up frustrated sometimes because you're trying to build an industry where it doesn't exist.
So with all of the stuff that I did, music, storytelling, comedy, there's still like, it's not gonna happen until it's institutional. It's not gonna happen until people are getting trained because for example, with Family Reasons, I had say 100 people on the set that day, right?
Jessica
And this is, I'm gonna interrupt for one second just to explain, this is an incredible music video when was it created? Last year? Yeah. So we break up because of family reasons. So highly recommend you hop on YouTube and find that because it is absolutely incredible. And now please continue, sorry about that.
Jhansi
I think it was a year and a half ago, yeah.
Jhansi
So in musical theater, we know that you have to be triple threads, right? Singing, acting, dancing. However, that is something that has to be trained into you. That's not something that you're born with. You may be born with one or two. Since we don't have triple thread training in India, anyone I hired was only for that specific thing that they could do. So my singers were different, my dancers were different, my actors were different, right?
Jessica
Mm -hmm. Hmm.
Jhansi
Now, when I got my singers, I had to get them all in a room, give them like a whole 10 hour workshop just to tell them how to sing the story as opposed to sing the words because it's all pop singers. Like everybody I gathered, like there are no musical theater singers. So I had to like train them. Same for the actors, same for the dancers. How are you telling a specific musical theater story? So in that sense, like that's what I mean by it would get lonely. Like I would have people around me, but.
Jessica
Hmm.
Jhansi
I was still alone in what I was doing. And I guess, you you can think of it, oh, you had a first move as advantage, which did kind of help me with my visa, because that's how I positioned myself as I was the only person doing this. I was pioneering. I was hiring people doing all of that. And that really helped. But.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
What I'm really enjoying about New York is that I am not alone and I have people who have similar interests. And I don't know if I want to be here my whole life. Definitely want to be here for a couple of years and like take my fill, maybe dig deep roots so I can keep coming back. But yeah, I'm really glad to find community here at the moment.
Jessica
Hmm. Right.
Jessica
Mm hmm. Yeah. When you created We Break Up Because of Family Reasons, can you tell us about the process from conception to the development and hiring people? Like, I would just love to hear how you built something from an idea into this booming thing that won at festivals and that has given you a name and recognition. It has over 200 ,000 views on YouTube. I mean, it's an incredible piece and I would just love to hear any details that you could offer us about the process.
Jhansi
Absolutely. So I started writing it, I think 2021, because I had just written a big musical, and then I was so ready to put it on and then the Delta wave of COVID came back. And the summer of 2021 is going to be in the collective memories of all Indians as the most devastating summer we have ever lived through because that was our dangerous phase. And that was the time when you were waking up every single day and hearing that somebody new had died.
somebody you loved has just gone. Like it was a horrible two months. And of course, when that came, I was like, first, like, let me hear from this. Secondly, anything I'm writing, if I'm writing for the stage, it's worthless, at least for a year. So let me start trying to write something for the camera so that maybe I can get people together, shoot something, and then it's going to be on people's phones as opposed to having people together. Because God knows when that's going to happen again. So that's why.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
I started thinking of things I can write for camera and then family reasons. It's such a thing in India, like every single day, especially around the time you're 25 or 26, you keep hearing about people breaking up because that's the time when your family's like, okay, maybe let's get married now. And they're like, okay, but I have this person and they're like, yeah, no, we don't like them because X, Y, Z, X, Y, Z, X, Y, Z. And then it's just like a wave of breakups that happen around the age of 25.
And that was just happening all the time. And I kept hearing about my friends breaking up. I was like, so there is a pattern. Let's, let's maybe there's a song here. So then I wrote it and then it took me, I think a year to actually start working on it because it's expensive to have a big production like that. And it's expensive. And also like you need people who really know how to shoot on a large scale because like,
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
anything I had done before was very much me with one cameraman in a room or like even if we're exploring it was the extent maybe four people on set maximum. This was going to be a big production. So I needed people who knew how to do it and knew how to do it cheap who would want to maybe come on board at like vastly reduced rates. So I...
Jessica
Right.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
was I just put it on a backbone. I was like, okay, whenever I meet people that I like and I find them interesting, I'm going to tell them about it, see if like something comes off it. So then I went to a artist retreat in India and through it, I was introduced to somebody and I was telling her, hey, so I have this song I've written. I made her listen to a demo I had recorded in Kolkata and she was like, dude, I'm gonna record this for you. Now this woman is really good.
She is a Filmfare Award winner back in India. So Filmfare is like maybe a version of our Oscars. And she was young. She was like my age. She was, I think at the time we were 26 and she's already won a Filmfare. She's pretty good at what she does. And she said that one of the things she'd always wanted to do was musical theater, but she had to take like a smarter path, which would actually get her money and like work.
And so she was like, I feel like it's fate that we have met because I've been wanting to direct something like this and you come with a piece that's perfect. So like, great. And then it took another six months after that for me to actually like gather funds and things like that. And then I was like, you know what? No matter what, I'm gonna do it now. So then, you know, basically when you set a deadline, you end up doing that. So then I gave myself three months to have it shot.
Jessica
Hmm. Wow.
Jhansi
So then started the process, like my cousin who is a dancer in Mumbai, she's amazing. She came on board, she's like, I'm gonna help you with anything. I can be a creative producer on this. So she started trying to get me choreographers. I managed to get a really freaking amazing choreographer. And you saw the choreography on the video. So again, like the moment I spoke to her, I knew the stars were aligned, cause she started quoting things like, oh, I feel like it's very Hello Dolly. I feel like it's very this. I was like, okay ma’am.
Jessica
Yes, it's amazing. Hmm.
Jhansi
you come on board you're hired great and everybody was like happy to work at vastly reduced rates because they really liked the piece so much so that was amazing and then once we had a choreographer and we had a director and we had me and we had my cousin as creative director then it was just a matter of like okay when are our schedules free together we pick that date and then everything has to fall in place it just has to so that's what we did.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
I think the most expensive thing that I had to pay for was the set. The set was expensive, but you know, I did my best. I was like, oh sir, I'm like producing it all on my own. Can you please reduce the rates? Like I was doing my bit to get everything done, everything done. And I was very proud of myself for that because I am bad at bargaining.
Jessica
Hmmmm Yeah. Well, that's hard. It's a hard thing to do.
Jhansi
Yeah, yeah, but it was such a good process. And then I started like, so the choreographer, she had like a bunch of dancers, right? So I didn't have to worry about dancers. For actors and singers, I started putting out audition notices and asking friends, because again, when you're in Mumbai, you know people who want to do this and who would do it for cheap rates. Because one of the things I wanted to make sure was that I pay everyone.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
So the first thing we did was record the audio. And that was so fun. Like I'm telling you, I loved that master class that I got to teach them and just like take them through the song. And then it was like, how many hours in the recording studio? It was I think 18 to 20 hours in the recording studio to get everybody recorded. It was a lot. It was a lot.
Jessica
That is a lot.
Jhansi
It was awesome. It was a lot of snacks. It was a lot of laughter. And it was a lot of me just standing with everybody like.
Jhansi
That was me for 20 hours. It was awesome. I loved it.
Jessica
Hehehehehe
Jessica
incredible and it seems like you really thrived in your leadership position.
Jhansi
I think so, yeah, I really do enjoy it. And that is definitely something I do miss, being here. Compared to India, for sure. Yeah.
Jessica
Yeah.
Jessica
Mm -hmm. Because you could lead the charge and have all this input. And so now that you're here, what are you, are you doing more like auditioning for musical theater roles? Is that your focus?
Jhansi
So there's a couple of things. So I came here again through my writing. So there's this workshop called the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Yeah, so just for the viewers, maybe I can explain it a little bit. So it's a free two -year -long musical theatre workshop that teaches composers and lyricists the basics of the craft of writing musical theatre.
Jessica
Yeah, please.
Jhansi
And we meet once a week. It's very structured. It's at 7 World Trade Center, 30th floor. It's awesome. The view is beautiful. You get assignments. So let's say there's like 15 composers and 15 lyricists that get accepted every year. And you keep getting assignments. So you get paired with a random composer. So I'm a lyricist. I get paired with a different composer for every assignment. And we're told, OK, so there is this play. This is the scene. Go write a song.
There's this movie, this is the scene that you have, go musicalize it. So you go, you write, you compose a whole song, you perform it, you get feedback. And then sometimes you have to go rewrite it, sometimes you don't. So that's called the BMI Workshop. And it's really, really famous. It's called the Harvard of Broadway. It's really difficult to get into. There's like all these application thingies that you have to do.
Jessica
Hmm.
Jhansi
And a lot of really cool stuff has come out of it, like, and cool people have come out of it. For example, Alan Menken was a part of it, the guy who wrote all the Disney musicals. Tom Kitt, the guy who wrote Next to Normal, actually Next to Normal actually started at BMI. They started writing it and started presenting it at BMI. So it's really a wonderful place for me again to find community, to find the...
Jessica
Wow.
Jhansi
the kind of growth that I would not get in India of just learning the craft better. So I'm here for that. So I'm, I think in my sixth, fourth, fifth, whatever, something month of that. Apart from that, I'm auditioning for things. I am starting to get back into comedy. So doing all of that. So I'm just, I'm trying to make the most of the time I have here, you know, cause I don't know how long I'm here.
Jessica
Yeah. Yeah.
Jhansi
So it's more like live every day. Cause you don't know when you're going to be married off.
Jessica
Right, right. How does that feel to know that you have that kind of imminent deadline?
Jhansi
scary. It feels it's a lot of pressure because you feel like you need to like succeed in a very small limited amount of time. And it's not like my parents are pressuring me. It's not like they're forcing me. But here's the thing. All my friends in India are married. Most of them have kids. None of them are single anymore. Right. And
The normal time to get married is 25. I am currently 28 about to turn 29. So like my parents told me that way, way long ago, they said, listen, we're not going to ask you to do anything till you're 30, but please buy 30 get married because like, if not, then all the people in your community are going to be married. So then you're actually basically going to be out of the community. Um, and.
We're not going to pressure you at 25, not at 26, not at 27, but around 28 or 29. We're going to like start looking for people for you. So it's scary. And again, I know that if I tell them right now that, hey, I don't want that, they're not going to force me, but then it's a big decision I have to make. Do I want to stay in my community? I do like it. Or do I want to be abroad? Because living alone and having a life alone is, it's not easy.
Jessica
Hmm.
Jhansi
when you're from such a community oriented just just a habit of life.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
big decision for me. Because if I wanted, if I told them, hey, I've decided I want to stay in America, they can actually like maybe find a groom for me here as well. Like, do I want that? Do I want to be about a day and a half away from my family in case something goes wrong?
Jessica
Right.
Jhansi
Yeah, life's fickle man.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
And I'm sure that, and so it's so many decisions wrapped into one, right? Because it's where am I gonna live? What am I gonna do? Who is this person I'm going to be with? And so if you're choosing one thing, you're kind of choosing a package deal of a lot of things.
Jhansi
Exactly. And also like that I have to factor in the fact that America is a little scary, especially for people who are not white. And there's gun sale, which I don't have to worry about in India. There is a specific kind of bullying in high schools and middle schools that happens in America, which you don't get in India. Like it's particularly vicious here, I would say.
Jessica
Oh yeah.
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
So I don't know if I want to have kids here.
Jessica
Yeah, I hear you on that. It's terrifying to imagine that. I don't want a child to have to do like shooter drills in school. No child should have to do that.
Jhansi
especially when their parents have a choice to not put them through that.
Jhansi
And also there's this whole thing of like when you're in India, you're Indian. But if you're here, you're brown. Like you're very aware of your color. You're not just another kid. You're a brown kid. You're a brown person. Like for example, I have a show that I am going to be a part of and that's going to be in.
Jessica
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
Montana which is somewhere on the west coast I was told but like I was warned by my friend said hey expect racism there because it's a tiny red town it's like that's scary shit I don't want to experience that yeah
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
And like you're saying, it's not just someone being unkind. It's not someone just being mean. It's dangerous too.
Jhansi
I mean, you hear about Asian people getting attacked all the time, especially since COVID, right? And how long before some brown person does some fucked up shit and then every brown person has a target on their back, right?
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
Sometimes because sometimes I get mistaken for Mexican because I guess I kind of look That Mexican so people come and talk to me in Spanish all the time. That's fine but because I look Mexican sometimes people like treat me the way they would treat a Mexican person which is fucked up and then it's also fucked up to be like wow just this just it's messed up and
People are, people really have their perceptions and they treat and people come up to me and ask me for drugs all the time which is which I find really funny they're like do you have weed? I'm like ma 'am excuse me no I have cocaine you want that? No.
Jessica
You're asking for the wrong drug.
Jhansi
Yes, I don't do that bitch ass weed, please! So dumb.
Jessica
Have you found that being in the musical theater space, you still experience racism? Is it better within that bubble?
Jhansi
I think it's definitely better. I think it's very interesting in the sense that there is a lot of like, oh, everything is we have we're we want people of all ethnicities for everything. So people are really like opening up to that. And I think that's really nice. And I think in the arts, people are now very hyper aware of the whole.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
visual spectrum of how things need to be and should be. So I think it's a good good situation. I don't know what people are thinking but at least what they're showing is good. And I'm sure that there's like hidden racism you know for example and can I talk about specific shows?
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jessica
Yeah, whatever you want. We'll do two versions. We'll say, so if you want to say, I saw this show, and then you can say, I saw whatever, and then lead into your story so we can decide after.
Jhansi
So I saw this one.
Jhansi
Yeah.
Jhansi
Yeah, perfect. Cool. So I saw this show and this is a show which is adapted from a TV series which is very, very well known and there is three or four prominent actors and characters of color. However, in the off -Broadway version that they're doing,
all of the characters of color have been reduced to one person and a couple of the prominent people are not even mentioned so it's like a white cast with one person who plays all the brown slash asian slash whatever people with the black characters just not mentioned throughout at all things like that i'm like really do you need to do that really it's kind of ridiculous and visually you can tell like
Jessica
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
that there's a lot that still needs to be done. It's predominantly white. Which is okay, for some stories fine, but not for most things.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jessica
Correct, yeah. And also we're talking about what we're seeing on stage and things have changed for the better in a lot of ways. There have been improvements, there has been progress. However, there's still a lot of changes that need to be made like you're saying. And then that's not even getting into the crew, behind the scenes, creative team, producers, all of that. That's just what we see.
Jhansi
Exactly. Yes, exactly.
Jessica
That's not who's making decisions. That's not who is, it's not who those cast members have to go to if they have a problem. That's, you know, the cast is the first line of defense in terms of what needs to be changed because it's what an audience member sees. And it's like, oh, wow, this is diverse, great. And then you have to look a little further.
Jhansi
Yeah.
Jhansi
Exactly. Yeah. And there's a lot that people are trying. For example, Hell's Kitchen announced fellowships for people of color and a lot of things. So hopefully, and you know you've got the rise directory, which Lin -Manuel Miranda Foundation has done. So people are trying their best. I hope it actually ends up changing things.
Jessica
Mm -hmm. I'll be cynical and say some people are trying their best. Maybe most, but not all.
Jhansi
That is true. Yeah. Yes, you're right. Some people are trying their best. Some people are tolerating it. How about that?
Jessica
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Or doing the bare minimum or just doing whatever they have to do to like make a visual that is appropriate, performative.
Jhansi
Keep up. Yeah.
Jhansi
Ugh. Yup.
Jessica
Well, on top of just wanting to have more diverse representation in casting and in behind the scenes work and everything like that, to have stories like your stories, what you have to offer specifically is something that I mean, I never thought about We Break Up Because of Family Reasons before I watched your video. It's not something that had crossed my, oh, now I'm learning.
And now I have this whole new insight and it was done in this brilliant, beautiful musical theater way that was accessible because I had it right in front of me on my screen on YouTube. It was right there for me to learn to celebrate different kinds of artists, different choreography, different direction, all of this. And that is why your storytelling is so important.
and so vital and I'm so moved that you are having this opportunity right now to continue growing and to continue being celebrated because we need your voice and we need your storytelling. We need you performing and we need you writing and writing, did I just say writing twice? Writing and writing. Yeah, it's, I'm grateful that we get to witness what you have to say and what you.
want to share.
Jhansi
Thank you. That means a lot.
Jessica
It's.
Jessica
We tend to take in a lot of the same things over and over again, maybe a little bit recycled, maybe a little bit different, but to have a different perspective is so vital.
Jhansi
that and sometimes it's hard you know like to pick what stories to tell because
Jhansi
Okay, so I feel like all my life I have really like, biched and holed myself that, hey, I am...
musical theatre person and then that allowed me to not do much in India because as soon as something becomes musical theatre there's like 70 different things that need to be done for the final product as opposed to okay it's a poem, it's a spoken piece, it's a story, it's da da da da. I don't know it's interesting like when you say that there's a lot of stories and I have been actively searching for more things to...
more things akin to family reasons that I do want to speak of and that would shed light and in a way that is entertaining. So I'm glad you're saying this because I think you do.
Jessica
Yeah. What are some, I mean, not to ask you to divulge your secrets, but what are maybe some stories that you're interested in either telling through this musical theater lens or that you've just been kind of sitting with in your heart and in your mind?
Jhansi
I have been sitting with, I think definitely something that's really pertinent to me right now as well is the whole pressure of getting married by a certain age and what happens if you don't. And I feel like there's a lot of songs and stories in that. So from a thing, maybe a song about biodata. Do you know what a biodata is?
So it's like a wedding resume that is made. So, oh, it's awful. It is the worst. So let me tell you, Jessica. So it's called a bio data and it has everything from your height, from like photos of you, from different flattering, but sober and like conservative angles to your skin color. Your skin color is mentioned.
Jessica
My eyes are wide.
Jhansi
what you do, your hobbies, your interests, your parents, what they do, any family businesses you own, your uncles, your aunts, your grandparents, like it's all that information. And that's what is sent out to like prospective grooms or you've got like matchmakers who have whole agencies for matchmaking. They take a broker's fee essentially, and then they send it out to like people who are similarly wealthy. That's the basis of how it's done. And then,
It's ridiculous. So like my skin color is called wheatish in India because you don't want to say brown. You want to say she's like wheat. It's awful. Brown fair skin is given a lot more preference in India, especially I think it's because of colonization like the British left, but they left all their horrible thought processes with us. And so yeah.
Jessica
Hmm.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
There could be a whole song about biodatas. It's fun. Yeah. It's things like that.
Jessica
Yeah.
Well, it seems like there's a whole musical there in this because all of these different factors are all the different songs and it's a huge, it's your whole life, right? Because you're leading up to this point and honestly, nothing in life is certain for most people, right? A lot of choices to be made, a lot of different paths you can walk down.
Jhansi
Hehehehe
Jhansi
Pretty much.
Jhansi
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
Mm. Yeah.
Jessica
but this is a community where you're having this end time, this deadline of this decision that is almost inevitable. So that's a really unique life experience.
Jhansi
Yeah.
Jhansi
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Jessica
And how do you find your independence and your empowerment within that structure?
Jhansi
Exactly, I agree. I guess it depends on what you consider independence, I guess, right, because I have a lot of friends who
very happily are living in the arranged marriage system. They got married to somebody they ended up falling deeply in love with. They have kids now and they're in a family that's not making them suffer essentially because also when you get married you end up moving with the boy's family. That's the culture. You do not live alone as a couple. The girl moves in with the entire family of the boy. So it's like the parents maybe brother, siblings and the husband and the wife. So some of them are really thriving.
because that is what they wanted and like whatever they consider independence say like the ability to still work after marriage they still getting to do. For some people that's not enough so I guess really depends on definition and it's interesting because like even this pressure of getting married by say 30 is very much self -inflicted on the culture because once you pass 30 you're considered like like people are like if she's not married by now there's something wrong.
Like either there's something wrong with her, something's wrong with the family. Like why? Like the base assumption is that she's been trying to get married for so long and she has not. So there's something wrong. Like as opposed to, oh, maybe she just wanted to get married later. No, no, no, no, no. And after 30, you start getting all the people. And again, there's nothing wrong in that. But after 30 is when you start getting prospective relationships from divorces. So it's like people who've already gotten married in their 20s and for some reason had to separate.
Jessica
Mmm.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
then in your 30s, that's the kind of like bio data as you start getting.
Jessica
Hmm.
Jhansi
And generally a person who's not been arranged marriage before would not want to get arranged marriage directly to a divorcee. That's again, like it's a very specific idea set that India has.
Jessica
Mm -hmm. Do you have people with, have you seen people within your community who have made the decision to not get married and you saw the aftermath of that decision?
Jhansi
I, yes, so I know one boy who decided to not get married until later and he's maybe 34 now and there is no aftermath as such except like he's always spoken off as a joke in the community. Like he has been reduced to a joke and he's very specifically choosing not to do it because...
of whatever reasons that he chose to, but no. And I know a couple of people who've been trying to get married because maybe, but because maybe they look a certain way. Nobody's liking their bio data because they're like, oh, maybe this person's too dark. Maybe this person's not, not the typical ideal of beauty. So no, we don't want to marry that. It's, it's ridiculous. And it's like, everything is forgivable if you have money.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
That's the culture in India. And I have seen people like get married and then like horrible things happen and they run away, they have to leave and people do their best. Like the parents, they're never gonna force, most parents will not force you to marry somebody that you don't like through arranged marriage. So that's good at least. And that's something that's happened recently. Like for example, my parents had no choice in who they married. Like they didn't even meet each other before like,
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
their parents met. They're like, okay, we like your family. We like your family. We think your boy is good. We think your girl is good. Great. The first time they met was when they were like basically getting engaged and it worked out for them. But like that's not gonna work out for everybody. It doesn't work out for a lot of people, but also divorce is not as easy in India. It is now. It's becoming more commonplace now. But I just heard of somebody who left.
Jessica
Right.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
Again, this is a rich woman, right? She's maybe been married for 30 or 35 years. She just got the courage to leave her husband and leave that whole family that she's been in for so long. And it's interesting because in India, there's like, where do you go back? Because the women aren't really like bred in a way where they know how to support themselves.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
where they can go off and live their own life. No, they have to be at the mercy of their OG family, the family they were born into, if they are willing to take her back, which most families are. Most families are. But again, if you're getting divorced after 30 years, your parents are probably dead. So where do you go then? Right? Yeah.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
But there's a lot of good, like my parents really love each other. And like a lot of people do, yeah. So, it's also about luck, you end up with.
Jessica
That's so great.
Jessica
Right, I mean, there's a whole world of rich stories in this culture from that woman who decided to like gain the courage to leave your parents who didn't know each other and then it ended up really well. I mean, again, these are stories that deserve to be told that...
Jhansi
Mm -hmm.
Jessica
I just keep circling back to this because I'm so touched by you and just again, listening to your music earlier, watching the music video and looking at your Instagram and I saw your Instagram post about how it's so quiet. Like you're used to so many voices, so much noise and you come back and it's quiet. And I immediately felt so captivated by you.
And then as soon as I saw you here, I was like, she's my friend. We're gonna be friends. But as a human, and then also to be as brave as you are, honestly, to tell these stories, to make all this happen, you not only put yourself out there by voicing like, yeah, this is really hard.
Jhansi
Yes.
Jessica
some of these things are really hard. Like you have to break up even if you love each other, if your families don't like each other, right? You're not only brave in telling that story, but in the way that you went about writing it and then going forward and producing it and then applying to come here and do this incredible workshop. I mean, I'm just wowed by you. I'm a little starstruck, honestly.
Jhansi
Jessica, thank you. Thank you so much. That's really nice of you to say.
Jessica
What's been the hardest part of being in New York?
Jhansi
Loneliness. It's akin to like the Instagram post that you're talking about. It is quiet. It is lonely and I I'm just used to having people around me the whole time because I live in a home where we are I think at least like eight or nine people in the house at all times including two young kids who are loud. So just
people like that around and being able to speak my language with people who are around me, that's what I miss a little bit. But I have made some Indian friends, but you know, it's different when you have to travel 40 minutes to go meet somebody as opposed to have them around me.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
I used to live in the East Village when I was here last year and my best friend in New York, he's an Indian dude, he lives right there. So that made, that was really nice because we would like just meet every single day. Like even if there's nothing to talk about, we just spend time around each other and would feel like home because it's the same people, same language. And that's what I miss. So maybe I'm gonna move back to East Village because he has a rent stabilized apartment. He's not moving anywhere. So.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jessica
Right. Oh my gosh, that is so lucky. Oh, oh my gosh. So jealous. Yeah, no. And also, the language. That's enormous. I mean, that's already enough to make you feel
Jhansi
Yeah.
Jhansi
homesick, yeah.
Jessica
homesick and then add the actual distance and not talking to people regularly. That's, that's a lot.
Jhansi
It's also, it's the quiet moments in the house. For example, okay, I just did like a one hour long, very concentrated writing session, right? When that's done, I want to go around and faff around with friends, right? But there's nobody around here or with family. That's the interesting part. And like when I am awake, everyone in India is sleeping. So unless you know, you count the one insomniac friend back in India, which is really helpful.
Jessica
Hmm.
Jessica
All right. You just need one to call at their 3 a .m.
Jhansi
Yeah, yeah. He's like, oh hello bro, I'm just having dinner. I'm like, cool. I appreciate your horrible sleep cycle.
Jessica
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.
It works for me. Yeah. I'm excited for you to keep writing and creating and unraveling everything that you're feeling, all of your experiences because...
Jhansi
Yes.
Jessica
You have so much to say. I can feel it. Like I can feel it bubbling in you. You know what I mean? Can you talk a little bit about what your training was like growing up?
Jhansi
Yeah.
Jhansi
Thank you. That would be great.
Jhansi
Yeah. So basically I had, I think a year of harmonium and like Indian classical singing lessons when I was in like maybe second grade and then I found it really boring. So I was like, mama, I want to stop, please. Thank you. So then I...
didn't have any training up until maybe like 10th grade at which point I was like, I'm gonna pick up, take up some piano. So maybe I did like piano for a couple of years, but I was not really trained in singing or any of that stuff. And so my actual training directly started in college. Yeah, I would, I wish I had trained growing up, but never did. I really thought about it.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
And maybe if I had found teachers that I liked, I would have stuck to training when I was younger, but it's all about the teacher. If you've got a good teacher, you're going to like love what you do. Otherwise you're going to be bored out of your mind. And I was bored out of my mind.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
And then how was college? What was that training like?
Jhansi
So that was musical theater bachelor's degree, right? So it was like singing, acting, dancing for three years. So all kinds of dance. So you've got tap, ballet, pas de deux, jazz, like Broadway jazz. Then you've got all kinds of singing. Like we would have like weekly private singing lessons, group singing lessons. We would have rehearsals for whatever show we were putting up every single day from 7, 7 PM.
or like maybe whatever, 7pm to 10pm or something like that. So it was like intense and I loved it because we'd be in college from freaking 8 to 30am to like 10pm every single day. I was like, yes, I love it. I loved being so busy that I could not move because I was so exhausted. Like that feeling I miss. That you don't get as a freelancer. That you don't get as somebody who's doing their own shit because you get lazy.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
That's what I'm trying to overcome. You know what? I decided that because there's no structure here, I'm just going to put ridiculous goals on myself so that I just like, even if I don't get to the goals, I'm at least working really hard because I love that. So.
Jessica
It's so much harder to be focused and productive when you have an open schedule because there are just one million things that you can do. You don't have someone telling you what to do. So you can do anything, which seems really wonderful until you realize that you're never going to do any of it because you can't decide where to even start. How do you navigate that?
Jhansi
Yeah.
pretty much. I with difficulty is how I navigate it. I do it well sometimes and then other times I just have a week where I'm like well shit a whole week just went by did I accomplish anything? Nope and I didn't even fold my laundry that's what it's like. But sometimes like I feel like I get really focused when I get a goal that feels tangible.
Jessica
Me too.
Jhansi
that I can actually work towards. For example, right now I've given myself a goal that before I leave for summer break, which is 21st of June, I gave myself a really ridiculous goal, okay, which I am gonna make happen, which is I wanna post 150 Instagram reels. And it's a lot, I know, but it doesn't have to be like difficult stuff. It can be easy stuff as well. Like for example, the post you saw today was not a difficult post, but it was a post which meant something.
Jessica
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
Just because like I've always wanted to do Instagram well and I know that I have like I think I have the right skill sets for it but I would just get so scared. So I'm like fighting my fear brain with numbers. I'm like bitch no. And then I make a beautiful flow chart. I'm like oh what are the insights? So like oh oh these many plays these many replays oh what do I learn from this? Okay let's make something new. So maybe giving it numbers is what helps me.
tangible number goals. And like I'm just trying new stuff as well now I'm trying to really get back into comedy which I was into when I was back in India and then I stopped because I was like no only focus on musical theatre but I realized that I might be a little bit funny so let's try some of that.
Jessica
Hmm.
Jessica
Yeah, you're so well, I what I watched is all most of it like was infused with comedy, even if it wasn't how you would first present it to somebody like this is a comedic piece. Oh, maybe you'd say, Oh, this is a musical theater piece. But there's so much comedy and what I keep coming back to this video Family Reasons, because it hit the entire spectrum of emotions. It was heartbreaking in some moments. And that's also
Jhansi
Yeah.
Jhansi
Mm.
Jessica
part of your bio too, is that you have people like roaring with laughter and then abruptly crying and you have that power to really take people through the whole spectrum of emotions that we're capable of. And so the comedy was totally there. It's there in all the stuff that you do.
Jhansi
That's, yeah. Thank you. So I'm tempted to, for a few months, explore what actual standup is like and maybe see if music and every time just putting in music is not necessary. Maybe I can just do it without. Let's see. So I found this thing. I was so tempted to take a bunch of classes.
on stand -up comedy, but they're really expensive. They're like $500 for like six classes or something. And I was like, is there a better way? Then I found a whole blog post by this comedian who said, don't pay for comedy classes. Here's a 12 week guide. Just follow it. And every week you have to go for three open mics and follow my weekly blog. I'm like, okay, let me try that. And then if I don't feel like I grow from that, I can actually take up classes. Classes are always there.
Jessica
Yeah.
Jhansi
So I'm starting that now.
Jessica
All right.
Oh my gosh. Wait, so when I, the next time I come to New York, I absolutely will come watch your open mic stuff. So right now I am in Boston for a few weeks. I've been traveling around a lot, but I will be in the city in May at some point. Perfect. It's, it's a plan. Of course, a thousand percent. Um,
Jhansi
So let's see how that goes.
Jhansi
Which city are you in?
Jhansi
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Oh, I'm here in May. Awesome. We're meeting, Jessica. It's happening. Yeah. Awesome. And hold me accountable, because I tend to get scared when it's like things to do with comedy, because when I did my comedy TV show back in India, I was green. I was such a baby. I was 22. I'd never done comedy before. And the first time I was ever doing it was straight up on national TV.
And I didn't even know what an open mic was and I was competing against people who'd been doing comedy for years and I was being judged by the comedy gods of India. So I got, in a nutshell, a lot of stress acne. Okay, because I was really stressed. I just got so scared of it, I just dropped it. I was like, you know, comedy is not for me, I'm gonna do musical theatre. And now I finally, somehow I'm getting the courage to try it again. So hold me accountable. Be like, hey.
How we are open makes this week, huh, Chansi? Did you go? Yes.
Jessica
I will hold you accountable. And I also will ask you to hold me accountable for making things because I'm so inspired by the fact that you'll just make a little short video and put, I mean, not to mention the big production, because that's a dream too, but even the smaller 45 second videos, that's so inspiring to me. And the fact that you're gonna try to do a bazillion by June.
Jhansi
Yes!
Jhansi
I'm sorry.
Jessica
is incredible. I really like the that kind of actionable goal settings. I think that's where I get overwhelmed when I'm like, I want to do this huge, ginormous thing. And then it seems so big that I, I don't break it down into small enough parts to tackle it. So that's my that's my issue right now.
Jhansi
Yes.
Jhansi
Yeah.
Jhansi
Let's hold each other accountable, man. I have actionable things. You figure out your actionable things. Tell me and I'll be like, okay, so this week, Jessica, where are we? I would love that.
Jessica
Yeah.
Jessica
Yeah, me too. Me too. I'm really excited. Yeah. And wait, I had one more thing about your videos, the comedy. Oh gosh, it left me. This happens a lot. It just kind of comes and then I get distracted and that's how it goes though. That's how it goes. And the other thing is that,
Jhansi
So...
Jhansi
leaves you.
Mm -hmm.
Jessica
I think what's helpful for me is when I look at something that seems overwhelming, and again, easier said than done, because I can say it to other people and then I have a hard time listening. But so for example, you're going forward into this comedy and it's a little bit intimidating and you're opening up in this way. If you look at it as I am going to try stand up because I'm interested in it, period, not because I'm trying to be a stand up comedian, not because I'm trying to do anything.
Jhansi
Mm.
Jhansi
Hmm.
Jhansi
Yes. Yes.
Yes.
Jessica
No, I'm curious about it. I'm interested in it. So I'm going to move forward and see what happens.
Jhansi
Yes, that is exactly what I am thinking right now. And it's a good reminder because it's so easy to like get caught in the trap of, oh, but I'm going to be good at it. Oh, but this, but that. But the only reason I'm even having the courage to do it again is because I'm like, oh, I'm interested in it. I want to go and experience it and like maybe fail a lot of times and see where it goes. Because the good thing about standup at least is that you're expected to bomb at open mics. You're expected.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
to be really bad and people are like, yeah, it's normal. But yes, not having expectations of I want to be a great something is a good way to actually dip your toes, I agree.
Jessica
Yeah, so then you're actually being present and you're being connected to your own desires and your own intuition and you're not just letting it be some external factor dictating your actions.
Jhansi
And you find joy in it. That's so difficult, especially as artists. It's so easy to lose the joy in something that you've loved all your life. Once the pressures of making a living, et cetera, comes in.
Jessica
Yeah, would you say that you or let me reframe. When are you the most joyful? When do you feel the most joy?
Jhansi
whenever I'm able to live in the moment.
and surrender basically and accept that if I will cut whatever will come will come I don't have any control over it but I can at least surrender in the moment. That's when that happens.
State of the...
Jessica
there.
Jessica
That really helps me because I feel like I never looked at it that way, but it's true because the most, when I feel the most joy, it's either a few times when I've been performing, but also when I'm baking in the sun by the ocean or when I'm belly laughing with my friends.
And that is what they all have in common is that there are these moments that are so overwhelmingly beautiful that I am actually present. And I'm actually able to be engaged in a given moment. Never really thought about it with that lens or that description.
Jhansi
Yeah. Yeah.
Jessica
Do you have, do you find that you are satisfied with the amount of times you feel joy in a given day, week, month? Do you feel like there's room for you to bring more into? Great.
Jhansi
Yes, I feel satisfied. I think I have thankfully an ability to bounce back really quickly. I mean, occasionally, very rarely I'll have like say a week or two where I'm really stressed about something and that's just sucking the joy right out of my life. But I have a good way of like always bouncing back very soon.
And like immediately or if not immediately, but very quickly seeing the silver lining and like latching onto that and genuinely not feeling anxiety so much anymore. That helps me.
Jessica
That's beautiful. How do you take care of yourself, mind, body, everything?
Jhansi
Hmm, so that's something I'm actively working on. I'm trying to sleep more. I watch trash TV. That makes me very happy. Love is blind is fucking amazing.
Jessica
Never seen it, but everyone's so obsessed.
Jhansi
It's awful and it's amazing. It's both of those things all together. I have a few, I have three or four people in the city, I would say three that I really trust and love. So I keep meeting them just to like fill my well of needed affection and love. And also to give affection and love. That's a way I take care of myself and food. I eat food. Comfort food is comfort food.
Jessica
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
that's pretty much what I do. But yeah, I also used to exercise and then I stopped, but I want to start again.
Jessica
It's hard to do everything.
Jhansi
and also fold your laundry. That's just something I struggle with.
Jessica
Have you ever folded laundry while watching Love is Blind?
Jhansi
I have tried that and that always helps. So thank you for a reminder. I finished the freaking season though, so I don't know. But yeah, more TV like that.
Jessica
Okay, yeah, that's, that's, yeah.
Jessica
I have been hooked on Vanderpump rules.
Jhansi
See you then.
Jessica
There's this big scandal that happened. Oh my gosh, so embarrassing. There's this big thing that happened and my sister is really into reality TV and like all the real housewives and this and that. And she absolutely insisted that I watch the season that like this big thing happened and I got hooked. And so that is now my show. And I've gone like backwards in time, cause that was season 10.
Jhansi
Yeah.
Jessica
So I've just gone backwards season to season. And it's a perfect show for things like that. Like I'll put it on in the background when I'm folding my laundry, or it's almost like I can turn my brain off and just get a little bit more clicked into where I am. But really important question, what is your number one comfort food meal or just food?
Jhansi
Yes.
Jhansi
I feel.
Jhansi
It's this particular brand of Lays that you get in India. It's this particular flavor. It's called Magic Masala.
Jessica
I saw your video on that.
Jhansi
Yeah man, that's it. That's all I need. I ate a whole packet last night. At 2am. For Indian food, it's this place called Savarna Bhavan. It's South Indian food and it's amazing. It's close to how it tastes at home. So that's what makes it amazing.
Jessica
What's your favorite? Sorry. What's your favorite restaurant in New York that you've found?
Mm -hmm.
Jessica
Where is it?
Jhansi
It is in two locations. One is in Upper West Side and there's one in Curry Street, which is somewhere midtown East. Savarna Bhavan. It's quite great.
Jessica
Okay.
Okay, everyone hear that? I'll link it too. It's really important. You gotta know how to nourish yourself, fuel yourself, both physiologically and emotionally. You gotta get some good food in us. It's really important.
Jhansi
Mm -hmm. Yes. Mm -hmm. Food is delicious. Food is important. Food connects you to home, and it smells like home.
Jessica
100%.
Jessica
So.
Jessica
I know we talked about what some of the next steps for you are because you're in this program and we know you're doing your Instagram reels and we know you are also starting with this comedy regimen for 12 weeks, everything like that. What else is next for you in your heart that maybe you haven't even spoken aloud yet?
Jhansi
Talking to you today really reminded me how much I love making videos like family reasons So I'm kind of tempted to like start making more of those like individual standalone thingies So I guess that's now gonna be percolating in my head and maybe sometime in the summer after I'm done with my 12 weeks of comedy and I'm done with my 150 Instagram views I'll just take a week or 10 days and just write down a few songs and then go into the process of okay How do we produce this because that's fine?
And the good thing is I have like so many people here who are composers, so now I don't have to do anything. Like all these people I'm meeting at BMI, I don't have to do everything. So I can actually collaborate with people and like make a product maybe which would perhaps be better than what it would be if I was just doing it alone. So, that.
Jessica
Yeah. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Jessica
And then you have the energy to really focus in on what you want to be focusing on.
Jhansi
Yeah, exactly. But definitely like making more videos because I do like being in that leadership position that you mentioned. It comes naturally to me and it's fun for me. So maybe that is something.
Jessica
And we need more leaders like you. So the more that you're putting yourself in those leadership positions, the more everyone around you will also benefit, not just the audiences, but then the people who actually get to work with you. And also, so I'm also gonna just say, I would personally love to be just to fly on the wall or be connected to what you're doing.
in any way that I could ever be useful because I think you're a star. I know you're a star. I love what you do. And that's it. I'm just going to selfishly plug that. I'm going to selfishly plant that seed for myself. I'll bring you coffee. I'll bring, you know, I'll do anything.
Jhansi
Thank you.
Jhansi
I would love to have you do whatever you want to do with any project I'm doing. So.
Jhansi
You can do a lot more and you will. Please, thank you. And coffee as well, because coffee is awesome. Also, I discovered something very interesting about coffee is that I, for my whole life, I thought that people were lying when they said that coffee wakes them up. Okay, I just thought they're pretending. That's not a thing. And because I would drink coffee and immediately get drowsy. So I really thought people are just trying to be cute when they said it all their life. And then
Jessica
you
Jessica
Interesting.
Jhansi
This December, so three months ago, I met up with a friend and we met over coffee at 7 p .m. He's like, oh, I can't have coffee right now because it's so late. I'm like, dude, why, why, why, what is this bullshit? It's not true. You know, like, why do people always say this? Like, coffee does nothing or it makes you sleepy. He's like, wait, do you have ADHD? I'm like, no, I don't know. He's like, no, for some people with ADHD, coffee does exactly the opposite of what it does to everybody else.
So turns out coffee does wake people up and they were not lying my whole life. And I probably have ADHD, which is why coffee makes me sleepy and has my whole life. And I remember in school before big exams, I would chug a red bull like, yeah, I'm asleep all night. So I'm gonna work all night. And I would immediately fall asleep because again, the caffeine in it makes me sleepy immediately. So interesting tidbit.
Jessica
What?
Jessica
That's fascinating. I've never heard that. I will Google it. And also I can't have any caffeine afternoon. Like noon is my cutoff. I will not have any caffeine, even like a green tea or anything that's even, no, I won't, cause I won't sleep well. I won't be able to fall asleep.
Jhansi
Yeah. And then Google did, it's a thing.
Jhansi
I have nothing in my life that wakes me up at this point. I swear to God, like after BMI, me and my friend, I have a friend, we always go to a diner and I'm like, yeah, I need a nice coffee at like midnight to get me to sleep now. Cause it gets me drowsy. So I go to diners at night and have like a nice, you know, latte or cappuccino just to get in like, you know, a nice sleepy mode.
Jessica
There has to be some song or music video there. That has to be something or at least a real. Yeah. Like you in the diner at midnight and all your friends are asleep and you're just like having a rave. And then you have the coffee and then they have to take you home because you'd have the coffee and it makes you drowsy. You're just like ready to party. They're all home sleeping. And then you have to go to the diner to cool down. There's something there. There's something there, I think.
Jhansi
Ah, PSA.
Jhansi
No, it's the opposite.
Yes, yes.
Jhansi
There's something there, yay! It's fun. It's a very fascinating discovery for me. So I thought I'd share it. I think so, yes. Because a lot of other things match up and then I'm going to maybe formally get diagnosed at some point. But yeah, a lot of things match up. And this caffeine thing. It's ridiculous.
Jessica
So do you think you have ADHD? Yeah.
Jessica
Yeah, that's so weird. Also, I feel like a lot of people have a hard time winding down and so the fact that you have a way to wind down is great.
Jhansi
Yeah, that's true. I have nothing to wake me up, but I have something to wind me down. So there we go.
Jessica
Right. What's the opposite? Like I'm trying to think how people normally would wind down and maybe if you will, it's probably like drugs, which is not a good thing to just be like, I'm going to take drugs to get awake, to make myself awake. That's not, I mean, caffeine is a drug. This is true.
We just are going to ignore that as a society. That's fine. Yeah, no, there's something there. There's definitely something there. Okay, I'm going to wrap this up with a few more questions and then we're going to be done. But I have some fun things. First question is, what is your favorite musical?
Jhansi
Come from away.
Jessica
Hmm
Jhansi
It's beautiful. It's perfect.
Jessica
Beautiful answer. That took me so long to get that word out. Yeah. Beautiful answer. Beautiful answer. Okay. So besides Love is Blind, what is your favorite TV show?
Jhansi
Beautiful.
Jhansi
Ooh, okay, okay, okay. I really enjoy the office, how I met your mother, modern family, Frasier, Saturday Night Live, a bunch of things. Shitscreen. Shitscreen. Comedy. Yeah, man. But also it's because if I'm not watching a comedy, I cannot stop watching it. For example, I started Three Body Problem, I finished it in a day and a half. I...
Jessica
I see a theme. Yeah.
Jessica
Oh my gosh. I haven't because I want to read it first. So I haven't watched but it's on my list because people are people are talking.
Jhansi
Yeah, so it's a problem, right?
Jhansi
Mmm.
Jessica
Yeah, I feel the opposite kind of because when I have a comedy, especially or some or even something like a reality show where I could just put it on the background, I'll just keep it going. And I have a hard time turning it off because it just seems like one long string.
Jhansi
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
Yeah. Yeah. I get that.
Jessica
Yeah. Okay. Last thing. What is something that you love about yourself?
Jhansi
Mm -hmm.
Jhansi
Ooh, my empathy. I feel like that no matter what I lose in life, that's something I cannot and I will not lose because that allows me to navigate the world in a way I like.
Jessica
Amazing. Okay, I know I said those were my last but I actually have one final one. So this is the classic on this podcast. So the final question is, what is your human bio? So what is your bio that exists off of your resume? Just as who you are.
Jhansi
Yes.
Jhansi
Chasi is a...
heart first empathetic individual who wants to.
Jhansi
make people smile and smile herself and hopefully have a good time in life and be there for people that if she can that's kind of a basic thing I guess.
Jessica
Mm.
Jessica
Yeah, perfect. Perfectly said. Well, I'm so grateful that I got to meet you and thank you so much for chatting and we have lots to do together moving forward, starting with you going to Open Mic Nights and me being there supporting you.
Jhansi
Yeah.
Jhansi
Yes.
Jhansi
Yes and also you sending me your actionable stuff so I can keep you account.
Jessica
Yes, definitely, definitely. Thank you so much. You are so lovely, so talented. You have such a bright future ahead of you and you've already done so many amazing things. And I wish you the best of luck with everything you're doing. And I'm excited that I get to connect and be a part of your journey now.
Jhansi
same.
Jhansi
Thank you. And same, when we meet, I want to know a lot more about you because today we just basically spoke about you. So yeah, awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Bye.
Jessica
We'll get into it. We'll get into it. Okay, amazing. Have a beautiful day and we'll talk soon. All right, bye.