Shefali Jariwala: I’m a water baby; I just need to see the ocean, and I’ll dive

Not only does she embrace every challenge that comes her way, but something that could drop anyone’s attention beyond her on-screen presence is her travel diary. Well, we are talking about none other than the Kaanta Laga girl, Shefali Jariwala, who, no surprise, is a travel bum.
Be it her personal trips or work trips, Shefali knows how to enjoy her traveling days to the fullest. “Travel to me means my soul,” begins the Bigg Boss fame, adding, “It helps me become the person that I am. I am a true adventure-seeker, and I crave newer experiences in life always. I do not like monotony, so travel is very important to me, and I am a happy girl when I am traveling. I’ve always enjoyed traveling. The stamps on my passport and the boarding pass have been the stories of my life. There are so many stories to tell because of my travels.”
Basically, during our telephonic conversation, she shared that she had just landed back home a day after her trip to Lucknow. But, for our special weekly segment, the model-actress recalls her most exciting recent trip, which was to the south of Italy. Well, during this trip, something that she enjoyed the most was her own company, in view of the fact that it was a solo trip. Taking us more in-depth into the trip, she goes on, “I did not plan anything. I just reached the place, and I used to decide, Mujhe aaj kya karna hai. And I think that was the best part for me—the beach, the Mediterranean Sea, and the little Italian villages—and I was just wandering and eating. I was just in a food court every day, relishing all the street food and enjoying my day at the beach. Sometimes you need to be alone to discover yourself. We are evolving through time. What I am today and what I was five years ago are two different people. During the process, you need to be able to understand who you are and who you are becoming, and I think I can do that when I am traveling. There is no distraction, no phone, I love nature, and somewhere travel the mountains, beaches, and walking on the road where you are just thinking and reflecting, and that is exactly what I was there for.”
Forget experiencing the culturally rich heritage there; she in fact lived like one of the locals. “Wherever I travel, I don’t like to go there like a tourist. I like to eat where the locals eat, I like to live like the locals, and I love making friends and learning new languages. I made a lot of friends and they chilled out and interacted with me. Whenever I travel, I get a little piece of it with me. Especially being from India, we are used to a very rich culture, and when you go to places like Italy and France, there’s a very rich culture there, and Italians are especially close to Indian culture. They live with their families and are very close to them. They are very expressive, very loud, and very hospitable; they are just like us. Even if you go there alone, they just welcome you and take care of you, just like in India we treat guests. They are very close to Indian culture. The architecture is beautiful, as are the churches and everything, and of course, the food. Italy is known for its food, especially street food. Italy is not just about pizzas; there are so many more to it.”
In fact, she goes on to add, “They taught me the art of doing nothing. That is actually a thing in Italy. Doing nothing is also an art. I mean, we are so busy in our lives, so caught up in our professions and family life and responsibilities, that sometimes we don’t realize that we don’t have a single moment in a day where we are actually doing nothing, and that is an art. And that’s a thing there. They consider that one hour in a day or 30 minutes and doing nothing is really valued there. It took me time to implement it in my life. It’s very easily said but very difficult to do. One should definitely try it sometime.”
Now something about her social media that you can’t stop adoring—pictures of oceans and beaches. And, so yes, she does accept, “I’m a water baby. In fact, I’ve told my family that when I die, please scatter my ashes in the oceans. I have such a love for the ocean. I think I was a mermaid or a fish in my past. I just need to see the ocean, and I’ll dive into it. Water makes me very happy.”
Essentially, during her personal trips, she likes to rent an Airbnb for her to enjoy the local life and not prefer going through the same routine as living a hotel life, because for her that’s ‘boring’.
So for her, the rejuvenation trip is where there’s ocean and beaches. And, “Bombay has a lot of beaches. So it also depends on how much time I have. I just don’t like to hop, skip, jump, and come back. I like my time, and luckily I’m born in a place that is blessed with a lot of beaches. So for me, just sitting on the sand and looking at the ocean, even if it is for an hour, it resets me completely.”
Also, she did experience a frightening moment, not in the recent but yes, one of her trips: “I was in Japan once, and Japan experiences a lot of earthquakes. There are like multiple in a day. So anybody who is a first-time traveler to Japan will be shaken, and all the hotels there are high-rises. And I think I was on the 23rd or 43rd floor of the hotel, and even when there is a small earthquake, the hotel and the construction are of course earthquake-proof, but experiencing an earthquake so many times in a day was scary. The turbulence gets scary. Nothing really scares me otherwise. I am a very responsible traveler.”
As we head towards the end of this fun tête-à-tête, she opines that it does depend on who you travel with, if not a solo trip. “Sometimes when you are with a good company, you can get time for yourself, and definitely my favorite travel partner would be Parag for sure because we can make up different agendas. Maybe at times I’d like to go shopping and he’d like to chill, and we are very fluid and decide a time in the evening to meet at a place. But of course, solo traveler ka mazaa hi alag hota hai. I like my time, but I don’t mind traveling with company, but then the company has to be right.”