My favorite show on TV started a new season today. The Amazing Race is in season 10 and the pleasant surprise was to see an Indian couple in the line up.
As the CBS website informs
Vipul & Arti are the first Indian-American Team to run the Race. Both speak several languages and are well-traveled. Vipul admits to being a bit overzealous, while Arti takes great pride in her ability to reign in his emotions and focus him in on his strengths–a skill she will undoubtedly be forced to call upon while racing around the world.
On the show they made all the appropriate moves right from introductions to driving around looking for Seattle Int’l airport. I somehow didn’t understand why Vipul was being all sloppy when it came to describing his wife.
Vipul, 29; is in Sales; while Arti, 27 is a nutritional educator. They both live in sunny Windermere, Florida.
Check out the official Amazing Race website for all the other teams.
Producers raved about the couple, the first Indian-American team to compete in the CBS adventure. The series begins its 10th season with a 90-minute episode Sunday.
“They’re terrific people,” executive producer Bertram van Munster says.
“They’re a very interesting couple. They’re funny,” executive producer Jonathan Littman says.
They are Vipul Patel, 29, a salesman, and his wife, Arti, 26, a nutritional educator. In the premiere, Vipul calls Arti his best friend.
“Arti is very loving. She’s very caring, she’s very friendly,” he says. “Just look at her: She’s beautiful.”
Arti explains the reason they’re taking part: They want to get the adventure out of their systems before they have children.
The Patels’ loving style offers an oasis in tense conditions.
The website continues to give more gossip, with comments frommembers of the family
Vipul and Arti Patel know how good the show is, their sisters say. “It was like his dream to be on it,” says Nilam Patel, Vipul’s sister, of Orlando. “We’ve been watching the show together for the last several years.”
Nirali Kanjee, Arti’s sister, says the couple drew Arti’s family into watching. “He fell in love with the show, and Arti fell in love with it,” says Kanjee, a student at the University of Central Florida.
The contestants don’t talk to the press until they’re eliminated from the show. Instead, CBS supplies relatives to give insights into the players. The contestants must keep the results secret from everyone. Nilam Patel says her brother, who was born in India, is competitive and goal-oriented, qualities that make him a good salesman. He speaks three languages, she says. Kanjee says her sister, who was born in South Africa, speaks five languages. The spouses love to travel and are energetic, but they offer a real contrast in personalities.
“She’s very charming, she’s calm, she’s too nice,” Kanjee says of her sister. “He gets what he wants,” she says of her brother-in-law, describing him as “assertive.” Producers say this cast is the most diverse in the show’s history. The players include Muslim best friends from Cleveland, a lesbian and her estranged father, and two Ironman triathletes, one of whom is a female amputee. There are also gay boyfriends, African-American single moms, Asian-American brothers and male models who are recovering drug addicts.
“We’re trying to find people who are interesting to watch,” host Phil Keoghan says. “Whether they’re old or young or gay or straight or Muslim or black or white doesn’t matter. It’s are they interesting to watch and is the viewer going to care to watch them?” Producers say Vipul and Arti Patel deliver on that count. Their relatives plan to gather at the couple’s Windermere home to watch the Sunday premiere. Nilam Patel says the family is proud the spouses are the show’s first Indian-American contestants. She says she has noticed a change in her brother and sister-in-law since they returned.
“They’ve always been happy,” she says. “Now they have that special closeness. After you go through so many obstacles on the race, you become a lot closer.” Windermere’s Vipul and Arti Patel are the first Indian-American team to compete on the show.
Sadly, things did not go as hoped for and Vipul and Arti were eliminated at the end of the first leg in Beijing, China.
