6am:
Time for the morning wake up call in New York City (NYC).
7:30am:
I make myself an omelette topped with Shan red chilli powder — I’m a little desi like that. I then proceed to making myself tea, which I carried with me, all the way from Pakistan. I have to have this cup of tea with my breakfast otherwise my day does not go well.
8am:
Because of the time difference, I make sure I Skype with my kids before I start work for the day.
8:30am:
Omayr Waqar comes to our apartment and we start preparing, and doing our hair and make-up. It takes us about an hour and a half to get ready. Whoever is ready first (normally me), starts heading towards the car and we drive to the shoot location. The whole crew is waiting for us on set when we arrive.
9am:
We start shooting around 9am on most days. If it’s an outdoor shoot we wake up earlier. When we were in Connecticut, we were waking up at two in the morning, and spent about 10 hours on set! There is always a handy table with all kinds of snacks in case we need to refuel between takes. Today the table is loaded with goodies such as doughnuts, tea, coffee and a few other snacks.
2pm:
We get our lunch break on time here. Since Americans are so punctual, lunch is never served later than two in the afternoon. When we’re done, we take some time off and chill, which is also another way of saying Hareem Farooq, Sanam Saeed and I indulge in a gossip session. I’ve had so much fun with them!
3pm:
Since it’s Ali Kazmi’s last day here, and he’s going back to Toronto after this, him and I are goofing around and making Dubsmash videos!
9pm:
We have 12-hour shifts, so pack up time is usually by nine. There are a lot of things that happen around this time, which can’t be mentioned here, but what I can say is, although we’ve had very little time to unwind in NYC, we make sure to relax a little. Sanam and I go off to watch a Broadway show together.
11pm:
Hareem and I hang out every night and often bring the whole party to us. We have a huge kitchen here that opens up in the backyard. The girls usually just sip on tea or juice while someone is putting on a facemask or someone is oiling their hair — girls will be girls, you know the drill! Afterwards, we take turns to shower as we only have one shower and two toilets between us.
1am:
If we don’t have an early start in the morning, we hang out some more or grab a bite to eat. Then it’s time for bed in order to prepare for the next day!
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