LIFE'S GOT NOTHING ON ALAYA F

The actor, sprinting through her (un)chartered path in films, is in her blooper-embracing era. In a rather oh-so-fun yet philosophical chat, she lets us into her unfiltered mind.

- Interview: Stuti Agarwal

What're you thinking?” I ask right at the get-go.

Alaya laughs. “About the rest of my day? It’s weirdly very packed.”

I glance at my watch, puzzled. It’s 5pm, and the only latent—can we say the word without censorship nightmares?—thought in my mind is how I’m going to attempt the Sindhi kadhi ramen I’ve been reading about all week. It’s easy for me to procrastinate on the real to-dos.

“I have to go to my dad's, so I need to squeeze in my daily walk now.” She mentions some time later that she never misses her evening walk. “And then I have about 75 hard tasks left to finish.”

We sure approach life differently.

I get through days with haphazard proactiveness; she, on the other hand, functions on actual productivity.

Or maybe not.

“So once you're done with those 75 tasks, what's your non-skineare night-time routine?” I prod.

“I take a shower, and when I step out, my dinner is waiting for me on my bed.” She immediately acknowledges that it’s not a habit she’s proud of, but it’s one she enjoys and doesn’t plan to change anytime soon. We hear you, Alaya! We hear you.

You'd expect it’s a healthy meal followed by an early bedtime to set her up for the next packed day, but you'd only be partially right. It is a healthy meal for sure—stir fried paneer and veggies with a changing sauce, air fried sweet potato, and soup—but it’s not going to be an early night.

“I always watch something that makes me happy with dinner. Meanwhile, my mind quickly starts reminding me that I have pages to read, a gratitude journal to fill, my nam-myoho-renge-kyo chant to do, and my many digestive waters to chug. There’s always an inner battle over which episode to stop at, and an endless procrastination cycle before I finally get to my must-do tasks. When I eventually check everything off, the last thing I do is set my many, many alarms.”