National Volunteer Appreciation Week was celebrated at the game on Saturday for our Whitecaps FC Volunteers. To show our appreciation for them as an organization, they were given cupcakes and a Whitecaps Scarf as a thank you gift. There were plenty to go around and there were many shocked and happy volunteers as a result.
It was also the first day of Trivia Challenge. I have made up at least eight trivia challenges in which volunteers will have an option of taking part in randomly throughout the season. Correct answers go into a draw at the end of the night for three Whitecaps swag prizes. The first trivia challenge was a Whitecaps Word Jumble. Twenty Whitecaps soccer related words that needed unscrambling. It was interesting to see the level of skill of our volunteers. Some found it easy while others found it "challenging". But it was fun to see everyone huddled around their tables with their teams trying to figure the words out. You could tell they were having fun.
The three lucky winners were extremely happy at the end of the night and I received really great feedback from the Team Leads about the trivia challenge from their own teams. As far as the soccer game went, the Whitecaps FC went on to draw Dallas FC 2-2. Overall, it was a fun night. Looking forward to surprising our volunteers with more trivias and giveaways throughout the year.
The awards were last night and they were wonderful. It was everything I had hoped the actors would bring.
I didn't stalk the actors at the airport like most people cause I hate crowds and didn't want to stand for hours just hoping to get a glimpse of someone famous. I instead waited until the day of the awards to stalk them. Well, not really stalk. Earlier in the week, Abishek Bachchan and Aish Rai Bachchan showed up with Shiamak Davar, the choreographer of the actors and of TOIFA. Once they landed, they took a tour of BC Place and got aquianted with it. After, they headed off to the Pan Pacific Hotel at Canada Place, where all the actors were staying, to relax and get ready for rehearsals the next day.
The trio of Aishwarya, Abishek and Shiamak Davar took pics all throughout the tour. They were the first bollywood actors to arrive on the scene. You can see the stage in the background.
As actors trickled in during the week, they would sign autographs and take pictures with people. My cousin's daughter got a picture with Ranbir Kapoor who actually took the phone from her and took the pic of them himself. Nice guy.
So, when Saturday, April 13th rolled around, I headed over to the Pan Pacific hotel to see if I could catch a glimpse of someone. I was there for maybe 30 mins and saw two famous stars. The first was Prabhu Deva. He's considered the "Indian Michael Jackson Dancer". He came out and shook hands with everyone, gave autographs and said hello. I managed to get a pic of him.
I also saw Boman Irani. He didn't come out towards us but he walked from the hotel to inside of an awaiting car that transported him to BC Place. I have a pic of him walking over to the car and another of him sitting in the car with the window rolled down waving at us but it's still on my phone. After that spotting, I decided to head to BC Place and get ready for the night. My shift began at 4:30 and I was to work the Guest Services Desk inside the bowl on the floor level. Apparently, the fact that I can speak in hindi, urdu and know some punjabi along with being trained at Guest Services earlier, had something to do with me getting that sweet job and I got to sit down. :)
The awards were supposed to begin at 8:00pm but instead ran on "Indian time" and started at 8:30pm. I made friends with a TOIFA people who needed assistance in various things. I sat with ticketmaster and we worked together in solving all sorts of issues that arose. I actually had a couple of young girls, dressed to the nine, come up to me and ask me where the entrance to the red carpet was because they wanted to walk out with the stars. They held up their tickets at me and showed me the "VIP" on it when I gave them a puzzled look. I explained to them that the VIP didn't entitle them to the red carpet walk but that wasn't what they wanted to hear. So I wished them luck! The ticketmaster people and I had a good laugh over that one!
The stage looked beautiful. It had Vancouver components in the design with the Cherry Blossom trees and Stanley Park totem poles.
The night started off with the opening video for TOIFA which my friend had a hand in directing. It turned out amazing. Way to go, Baljit Sangra. :)
Anuksha Sharma and Ranbir Kapoor, along with Boman Irani hosted the event. They were amazing as always. Lots of energy and lots of laughs. There were many performances from Priyanka, Katrina Kaif and Aishwarya Bachchan.
At one point of the night when I went on break to the second level to grab something to eat, I was walking back to the ramps to head back down to my station, when I saw Abieshek Bachchan walk by me and into the tunnel I was just watching the show from. He had four Genesis Security guards and four TOIFA security with him. He was to go into the tunnel and dance down the stairs and onto an indian truck called a "lorry" which took him around the stadium and towards the stage. Here he is standing at the edge of the tunnel waiting for his segment to start.
Although that was pretty cool, the main reason I wanted to work TOIFA was to watch my bollywood favourite, Shah Rukh Khan. He was the second to last performer and danced to a medley of his hit songs over the years and he absolutely killed it. He had the stadium screaming at the top of their lungs and showered him with Indian love. It was absolutely amazing.
This is him when he first showed up to the song Badshah. Picture is from Style Me India. The video is of the fans going crazy when he was introduced by Anuksha and Ranbir. The response was deafening.
BC Preimier, Christy Clark and Finance Minister, Mike DeJong were also there. They were on stage and each got to be a part of the ceremonies. Bowman Irani and Mike did a little skit where Mike ended up dancing and saying a line from a Salman Khan movie in butchered hindi. Mike also made the mistake of calling the award a "TOFI" instead of "TOIFA" when he presented it to the winner. Of course, the winner made fun of that in hindi.
The Best Actress went to Priyanka Chopra who took her ill dad up on stage with her.
The Best Actor male went to Ranbir Kapoor who told kept repeating over and over again for two minutes only one thing. "I love you! I love you! I love you!". After Ranbir sat down, Boman came on stage and chuckles comedically "We love you too, Ranbir."
All in all, it was a great night for everyone. I was happy cause I got to watch all my bollywood actors perform. I even ran into old friends who were on the floor. King Khan brought the house down and everyone went home happy. Thank you TOIFA for coming to Vancouver. You made 38,000 people happy last night. Till the next indian awards!!
