I got the inevitable gasp of surprise when a friend of mine asked me where I study and I replied, Mumbai.
This is usually followed by the question: "Have you met any movie stars?"
In a city where there's a thin line separating the glamour of the big screen from the mundane reality, movie stars are everywhere.
In Mumbai, you don't just see them smiling down at you from billboards, they actually visit colleges to judge events and give guest lectures.
Bollywood - the term is politically incorrect, the right one being 'Hindi film industry'- is omnipresent and plays a huge role in what you buy, wear or drive in this city.
I've never been a big fan of 'Bollywood', partly due to my inability to understand Hindi and my uncanny ability to predict the ending of every movie, thus spoiling it for everybody else.
However, I couldn't contain my excitement when I saw a billboard advertisement for the Fantasia line of jewellery from Collection g, a collaboration between the World Gold Council and D'damas in a shopping mall.
"Pam, that's Jackie Fernandez in the ad! She's from Bahrain and she went to my brother's school!" I said excitedly to my friend.
Our animated chat caught the attention of a woman at the stall under the billboard and she walked up to us and asked if we could spare a few minutes.
She led us to the stall and explained that Collection g was looking for a girl to feature in the advert with Jackie and handed us questionnaires to fill in, with a view to doing a photo shoot soon after.
I had a quick look at the questions which were all about what set me apart from the rest, what individuality meant to me and what was the one thing I adored about myself.
I handed my questionnaire back, without filling it in. Pam turned to me and asked, "What's wrong?"
"This is pure narcissism. I'm not filling it in," I declared.
Although I'm a firm believer in individuality, wasting flowery words on it is not my way of expressing it.
We stood at the side of the raised platform in the centre as we watched a girl being interviewed.
"What is it about you that's different from all the other girls and makes you feel that you're right for this part," asked the host.
It was going to be my turn next and I turned to Pam: "I have a feeling that this isn't such a great idea. I can't fake anything over there. If stupid questions are thrown at me, I tend to be very blunt."
She pushed me ahead and I squirmed as I walked into the spotlights.
The host began by briefing me about the campaign.
"Every woman loves gold. So how much do you personally like gold?" she asked.
"Gold ... well, I don't really like gold much. It's something my mum wears," I replied.
Her face darkened slightly and I saw Pam slapping her forehead in the background.
"Well," I continued, "I would love to visit one of your outlets someday and get something nice for my mother."
However, the damage had been done and when Pam's turn came, they wasted no words and proceeded straight to the photo shoot.
"We have no chance anyway. The form said that to be eligible you have to purchase at least Rs 3,000 (approximately BD24.500) of jewellery from Fantasia collection," Pam said.
I hadn't noticed that and I couldn't help wondering why all important things like expiry dates and statutory warnings such as 'Smoking is hazardous to health' had to be in small print - along with the catches in 'special offers'.
Knowing gold prices, getting something that my mum likes would cost more than Rs 3,000 and I wasn't prepared to spend that sort of money.
The late Andy Warhol declared that everyone gets 15 minutes of fame. We came close to having our faces on the billboards and though I blew our chances, we were glad we got to be almost famous.
¥ Jennifer is a former Bahrain resident now studying in Mumbai. Her family still live here.
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