Bollywood singer Shefali Alvares happy with her move to Bhopal

Singer Shefali Alvares of Party On My Mind fame moved to her sasural Bhopal last year, but she fell in love with the city way back in November 2011.
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“It was the first time I went there. It was raining that day,” she says. It was love at first sight with her husband Aly Rashid too, who she met two-and-a-half years ago in Mumbai. “I met him while clubbing, through his sister Aliya, who’s a good friend.We hit it off immediately and have been together since then.”
Shefali’s love affair with Bhopal started a month after that, when she paid him a visit.Says Shefali, “Our first date was at the Sanchi Stupa, with Aliya as the chaperone. Aly runs a jungle lodge near Satpura Tiger Reserve, three hours away from the main city. He couldn’t take much time off for Mumbai since his lodge is open nine months a year. I used to visit him and his brother every couple of months while we were dating. Otherwise, it gets really tough to maintain a long distance relationship.”
After their wedding in early 2014, setting up home here was a no-brainer for Shefali. “It wasn’t a difficult decision to move. I love being based out of Madhya Pradesh. Bhopal itself is a really amazing city. It’s a green city and the monsoon is spectacular,” she says. Shefali flits between Bhopal and Mumbai for recordings and other cities like Goa for gigs.
When she’s in Bhopal, she usually lives in their home at the lodge, their in-laws’ palace hotel based in the city area or another retreat run by Aly’s family a few hours away. “Aly is a wildlife enthusiast, so, we love to travel to sanctuaries like Kanha National Park and I can spend hours at Chowk in the city. It’s the Chor Bazaar of Bhopal. There’s so much girly ethnic stuff there like batwas, sari bordersand embroideries, I can spend hours there,” says the singer, who’s pregnant with their first child right now, adding, “We are expecting a July baby.”
Currently recording Bollywood songs with composers Amit Trivedi and Sachin-Jigar in Mumbai, Shefali is fond of the quiet time she gets in her husband’s city. “People are really warm and friendly here. It’s a small city but it’s great because the pace of life is more natural. You can sleep in peace here instead of snoozing to honking cars! The people living near the lodge are more self-sufficient than where I come from since they grow their own rice and vegetables,” she says. The only thing she misses from her mayka is the organic food she used to order in. “But that’s going to change since Aly and I have also started growing organic veggies at the lodge. It’s the way forward!”
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Listen to Shefali Alvares's songs on Gaana.com
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