No Gain Without Pain here-Raghu Ram

Things rarely turn out as expected on Roadies. This holds true not only for the cast members, but for the crew as well.

If we got a dollar for every time a planned task didn't work out on the day of the shoot, or something else came up demanding immediate attention, we'd all be so rich, we wouldn't have to work anymore.

Last week's episode, shot in Dubbo, is a prime example. Both the tasks that were planned needed to be reworked before shooting could happen. But the crew is so good at this by now that the results were highly enjoyable. We always make sure that the tasks are not just tests of courage, but settings to bring out different aspects of personalities and group dynamics. I loved watching how Samrat, Palak and Poulomi faced the Dubbo Rhinos rugby team. Palak ran away from them rather than through them, getting disqualified. Poulomi tried to sneak past them, almost as if to not anger them, and when they came at her, bolted. She didn't get far either. Samrat went ahead full on with no fear of what they might do to him… and even scored a touchdown. If others had shown that kind of spirit, the roadies would have made much more than the Rs 1.85 lakh they made in the task.

Palak admitted openly that she would have put in more of an effort if it had been an immunity task. It was ironical then to see her whimper like a lost child when, for immunity, she had to face crocodiles! Through the years, almost all roadies have said that they take immunity tasks more seriously, and they reserve their best for them. That is why, we also reserve our hardest tasks for immunity.

Samrat and Nauman took the aggressive route, and held the crocs down while collecting coins, in order to avoid getting a nasty shock while they went about their task. But the crocs had the last laugh, when they threw mud in Samrat's eye, blinding him so he could not collect more coins, and by hitting Nauman's hand in the last second, making him drop all his coins. But I can understand Samrat's and Nauman's aggres sive reaction to fear. I have that myself. Fear, if used well, can be a very good weapon.

Samrat was voted out. My friends loved watching his animated performance while trying to shut the other roadies up. He was pretty dignified in his exit, though (except for the bizarre song and dance at the end, shown in the behind the scenes).

The coming week is full of pleasure and pain for the roadies. It might be pleasurable to have three hot bikini-clad blondes as part of the money task, but it sure is painful when you have to repeatedly jump from a height to create a big splash. It might be gratifying to do something you're not supposed to do, like open a mysterious envelope, but what that does to the vote-out will be very painful.