Karishma Patel had one of the most interesting journeys of thisSurvivor: Island of the Idolsseason.
We saw her talk openly about some struggles in her own life that extended into her marriage.
And we saw her struggle to fit in with the tribe who often showed disdain for her.
Karishma Patel on ‘Survivor: Island of the Idols’.CBS
But at some point, Karishma found another gear.
She located a hidden immunity idol.
She refused to follow marching orders and instead helped flipped the vote to oust Missy.
She went into full fight-to-survive mode and attempted to take a (metaphorical?)
wrecking ball to the heads of her enemies.
How does the worlds No.
1 Applebees fan feel about all the highs and lows of her time in the game?
I want to start by reading your own words back to you.
When I saw my husband, I saw a love thats more powerful than I ever could imagine.
Thats the love of being accepted for who you are.
Im going to go home with that feeling in my heart for the rest of my life.
I started this whole thing going out there as just like a personal challenge.
You know, here in life, I have a job, I have a lot of friends.
Im able to take leadership roles.
Out there, it was really, really hard for me, for a variety of reasons.
And I felt really levels of loneliness that I never knew could exist.
I felt feelings of being unwanted and being unliked.
Obviously, I felt unliked before, but this was just beyond anything Id ever experienced.
Because unfortunately when youre kind of treated as worthless at times and youre living in that vortex…. And that was a tough pill to swallow.
And to understand that, that these are the people who enrich my life.
And with that camenotan arranged marriage.
I absolutely have to fix that misconception.
I am not in any semblance of arranged marriage.
I think that term is just such a buzz word that people tacked onto it.
I got married pretty quickly of my own volition.
It was my own decision and very happily made that decision.
Gosh, who let me leave for like two months to go out and live a dream like this!
And so I was able to come home with this amazing perspective.
And I do want to mention something really important and its really cool.
And my gosh, if I havent carried that sentence with me because it is the truth.
It wasnt game related.
It was a vulnerable moment.
I think a lot of past players would agree that everyone shares personal things.
And you know, I have to be frank, I was exaggerating a little bit.
I was really, really, really focused on integrating with this new group, letting them in.
And they were a warmer bunch than I had been used to with old Lairo.
And there was a bit of exaggeration going on there.
You were concerned as an Indian-American woman about going against some cultural norms while you were out there playing.
The funny thing is that Indian people just dont watchSurvivor.
Its the weirdest thing.
I didnt have a single friend to watchSurvivorwith, not a single family member.
I didnt know any Indian person who watchedSurvivor.
So I think its super cool that that diversity was highlighted this season.
And I really hope to have opened up a whole new viewership of Indian people.
Now, start applying and playing because thats how the world should be.
So I did feel bullied.
Maybe that was wrong of me to expect that in a cutthroat game likeSurvivor.
But that felt like bullying to me.
And then little by little it would escalate.
And after the merge, it just took on another life in and of itself.
And it got pretty crazy when you think about it at the end the game.
Its funny, nobody really identified it as crazy.
Or Gosh, is there a way to get her medevaced, like literally within earshot shot of me!
To me, thats bullying.
That has a purpose of hurting me.
That has the purpose of putting someone down.
I mean, theyre wonderful people who would never say it but in the game, it was happening.
Like theres just no changing it.
And what happened was it kind of morphed into this whole We hate Karishma.
We hate her and it doesnt matter.
This is how we feel and no matter what, this is how were gonna feel.
I put on a security blanket.
But I put on that security blanket, I protected my heart, I put a wall up.
I stopped doing work around camp to help others because you know, you are insulting me.
Youre treating me like dirt.
Why are you bringing back logs over?
How many are you going to do?
And it kind of felt like, You know what?
Im not your servant.
Youre treating me like crap everywhere.
And it became kind of like a game strategy.
I said it before: Chaos is a ladder.
You got to let the chaos happen.
What was happening was Noura was digging her own grave.
And to her credit, she was fighting.
She got caught in a lie and she was doing everything she could.
But in my opinion, none of the things she was saying were making sense.
The more she said, the more she sounded like a liar.
And for moreSurvivorscoop, follow me on Twitter @DaltonRoss.
