The Tea Kettle - DesiQuest After Show Podcast - Episode 1 with Jasmine Bhullar (sneak peak)

When the kettle whistles and the tea is ready, it's time for the DesiQuest after-show—and what a show it is! Omar Najam and I, Sandeep Parikh, are all cozied up inside the teapot, steaming with excitement.  After every episode of DesiQuest is launched, we'll release another episode of the Tea Kettle with me and Omar and a very special guest, or guest from either behind or in front of the camera.

And who better to chat with in our inaugural episode than Jasmine Bhullar, the brilliant mind weaving the tapestry of DesiQuest. It's a laughter-filled session, where we peel back the curtain on Episode 1 and Jasmine's magical universe, a place born from the seeds of many ideas. Our conversation meanders through the gardens of creativity, where extroverted effervescence meets the tranquil depths of introversion, and we find that our differences are not just okay—they're essential for the rich tapestry of our show.

Hang on to your teacups because we're not just sipping tea; we're spilling it on the surprises that creativity often springs upon us. The unpredictability of what tickles our audience's fancy can be as bewildering as a maze in Jasmine's realm, yet it's this very spontaneity that fuels our passion. We share tales of unexpected hits and misses, and the emotional rollercoaster of bringing new content into the world. If your curiosity is piqued by this sneak-peak and you're craving to unwrap even more secrets of DesiQuest, please join our Patreon, where the rest of the conversation continues. Join us in this celebration of imagination, where every twist and turn is a story in itself.

Website: https://www.desiquest.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DesiQuest

Wanna play D&D with the cast? Buy a seat at the table here: www.desiquest/playwiththepros

DesiQuest merch: www.desiquest.com/merch

Sponsors:
Darrington Press: https://darringtonpress.com/candela/
Gharana Foods: https://www.gharanafoods.com/desiquest.html
Die Hard Dice: https://DesiQuest.com/DHD
Hero Forge: https://www.heroforge.com
Misty Mountain Gaming: https://desiquest.com/misty

Episode Transcript

Sandeep Parikh (00:05):
Hello everybody and welcome to the Tea Kettle
named after the Tea Kettle inthe show, and now you're inside
of it with us.
This is the Desi Quest AfterShow podcast, exclusive to our
Patreon backers, and this entireendeavor cannot be possible
without you, dear listeners.
So thank you, thank you, thankyou so much.
I'm your host, Sandeep,executive producer and cast

(00:26):
member, who plays Ash, and myco-pilot and also host is none
other than the effervescent OmarNajam, who plays Murkha.
Hi hi, omar, is that a good?

Omar Najam (00:36):
Hello, effervescent goodness.
I'm so touched.
Thank you.

Sandeep Parikh (00:42):
I always feel like now you're like yeah,
you're so bubbly, you know.
It's like I always feel likerefreshing.
I feel refreshed after I hangout with Omar.

Omar Najam (00:52):
My goal is to be, like you know, in commercials,
like soda commercials, when,like they play basketball and
then they crack open a soda andthen they drink it and they're
like that sugar water, reallylike carbonated sugar water,
really hit the spot.
That's what I'm going for.
So thank you, thank you verymuch.

Sandeep Parikh (01:12):
Well, after every episode of Desi Quest is
launched, we'll release anotherepisode of the Tea Kettle with
me and Omar and a very specialguest, or guest from either
behind or in front of the camera.
And guess what, this week wehave both in one, because we
have the creator, executive,producer and game master of Desi
Quest, jasmine Bhullar, aka thatBronze Girl, aka Bronze, aka, I

(01:35):
don't know, have you had anyother ones?

Jasmine Bhullar (01:38):
Yeah, I think that's the best stuff.

Sandeep Parikh (01:42):
How are you feeling, how are you doing?

Jasmine Bhullar (01:44):
Amazing I'm the opposite of Omar.
Is that for effervescence Ihave like the more.

Sandeep Parikh (01:51):
We get a hangover.

Omar Najam (01:54):
I always feel like I always genuinely feel like
distilled and like reset when Ihang out with you.
Jasmine, really, yeah, yeah,yeah, I'm just like okay, good,
good, I texted you about thisthe other day, I don't even know
how to do that bit.

Jasmine Bhullar (02:07):
Yeah, you were messaging me about it.
I have like a very, I think mything is extroverts hate me and
introverts love me.
Interesting.
You know, I'm just introvertsand they're like it's not
exhausting to be around you andextroverts are like.
Why are you like that?

Sandeep Parikh (02:25):
Well, it's because you call them out in
emotion.
I'm an extrovert and I don'tfeel that way.

Omar Najam (02:30):
This is how you find out you're an introvert.

Sandeep Parikh (02:33):
I think they're frail extroverts that don't like
hanging out with you.

Jasmine Bhullar (02:38):
Yes and no.
I think sometimes Sandeepyou're very much like is
everything good?
And I'm like yeah, I'm justsitting here, mm-hmm, mm-hmm,
yeah.

Sandeep Parikh (02:47):
Well, that's just my personality.
To make sure everything's good.

Jasmine Bhullar (02:49):
But that's like extro vert energy of like why
is your face like that?
And I'm like it's just likethis.

Omar Najam (02:55):
There aren't.
There's so much.
There's so much energy in thisspace.
That is like are you mad at me?

Sandeep Parikh (03:00):
And you're like what?

Omar Najam (03:01):
I just got here what's up why?
What did I get myself into?
What's happening?
You say that's not my energy.

Sandeep Parikh (03:10):
My energy is are you never said it's your energy
?

Omar Najam (03:13):
You've never.
You've never said are you madat me?
More frequently than not, youhave said to me, when I've
entered into a room breakfast isover there I would say that's
the most common introduction inperson.

Jasmine Bhullar (03:26):
Breakfast is over there.
Breakfast is over there.
It's free, don't tell anyone.

Omar Najam (03:30):
I guess I'm just a hotel card.

Sandeep Parikh (03:34):
I guess I'm very yeah, I'm a breakfast guy, I
don't know.
We always hanging out at hotels.
Let's go, ok, anyway.
Ok, we're getting off track.
Before listening, we're goingto jump in.
We're going to talk aboutepisode one, because people who
have consumed the show will nowbe listening to this.
But before we dive into thatdissection of episode one, we
ask that hey, you know, take amoment.
You know, if you haven'talready, maybe think about going

(03:57):
over to the desiquest.
com to hop on our mailing listand get a special discount on
some sweet, sweet merch.
That's just for you Patreoners.
That's what happens if you geton the mailing list.
So if you haven't done that,please do and listen.
There were a handful of sponsorsthat really took a big chance
on us to make this show possible, and so for each of these, we
wanted to just shout one of themout.
So for today, that honor goesto our very first sponsor,

(04:20):
Gharana Foods.
They were the first ones tocome on board and say yes, I
will sponsor you, before we hadreally anything but the
Kickstarter up.
We love them.
They're a family run business.
They're chukris like out ofthis world.
We ate it on set, loved it, andso listen, go, go, go over to
their website, gharanafoods.
com, and get 10 percent off yourorder using the code Desi Quest

(04:43):
, and that link will be in shownotes.
All right, did it Paid ourbills.
Now let's, let's, let's, let's,jump on in.
Jasmine, you spent months,maybe years, preparing this
world no Months.

Jasmine Bhullar (05:01):
Yeah, yeah, I think it was like it was one of
like an hour.
Five ideas that I had oh my God.
Kind of banging around.
I would say, yeah, this all the, all the really quick.

Omar Najam (05:14):
Do you have an?

Jasmine Bhullar (05:14):
all.

Omar Najam (05:16):
Hold on this entire world.
This entire world was one offive ideas.
Like I like in re in, likewatching the episodes, I'm like
this is a whole universe.
Like when you're in it, you'rein it but, like you know, now I
get to like.
Now I'm not worried about likemaking the choices and doing all
this and I'm absorbing all theinformation.
I'm like every corner of thisuniverse, how everything works,

(05:40):
how everything functions, how itcomes together.
And then you're here being likethat was one of five.
You know, I got.
I'm an undersea one, I got youknow, bio shock.
That's cute.
I can top that.

Jasmine Bhullar (05:51):
It's wild because, like I I don't know why
at any given time I couldprobably like pitch like nine
seasons, and most of them arehalf baked.
I think that's my superpower,though, like I don't fully bake,
I kind of keep everything alittle doughy in the middle, and
then when someone's like thisone, I'm like all right, let's
pop it in the oven.

Sandeep Parikh (06:13):
Right, it's kind of it's.
My first question is like whatwas your mindset when you were
first birthing it?
So it's kind of like you hadpieces of ideas kind of thing,
and then, yeah, and you're like,ok, now that we're really doing
this, let's you know 420 forfor three hours, is that?
Is that what we're talkingabout?

Omar Najam (06:31):
Wait, yeah, I'm kind of 420.

Sandeep Parikh (06:33):
I mean, I'm a degrees on the OK anyway, what.
So when you're doing your prep,like what are, like, what were
like the points of interest thatwere jumping out at you, it was
mostly just thinking aboutActually, like the, the
miniseries.

Jasmine Bhullar (06:49):
So when I'm doing something that's like more
long form, I usually prepdifferently than if I'm doing a
miniseries.
Usually with the miniserieswhat I start with is a
storyboard and sending that overto our director, Schaubach, and
I actually don't start on thatuntil, like, we have a director
which is probably a little latein the process, but I'll have

(07:10):
like some ideas of stat blocksand some ideas for MPCs and a
vague idea that's like kind ofjust notes.
And then what happens is is,you know, we get a wonderful
director like Schaubach and Istart fleshing out a storyboard,
which I know is very differentfor D&D prep, but I think is

(07:31):
useful when you're coming into aminiseries.
Because what happens then isyou can kind of write the Omar
episode right.
Like you get to, you get to makesure that, like, every
character has like a momentversus like, if you just prep

(07:51):
for it like a normal game, thenyou might not, you might not
have that.

Omar Najam (07:56):
I guess, yeah, do you?
Um, I know you've discussedthis like elsewhere in certain
iterations, but like, can youtake us through that process of
storyboarding, like what youphysically are doing, to be like
, okay, this is how this willall work and breathe and feel
like a family at the table?

Jasmine Bhullar (08:17):
Yeah, it's funny because my storyboard
changes rapidly, usually after,like in between episodes too,
which is why I structure it likethat.
So I have like really broadcolumns to start, which is like
the realities of production,which is like is there, combat
this episode.

Sandeep Parikh (08:33):
So that's usually where I start.
Okay, yeah.

Jasmine Bhullar (08:37):
Is there going to be combat?
Is there a potential for combatthis episode?
And then it's usually like,okay, what major locations are
we going to be in?
What moving characters are inthose locations?
And then, what specific plotthreads do I have that I think
the players will grab and latchonto.
And there are times that whatthe players latch and grab onto

(08:59):
is different than what youoriginally thought.
And so then you change thestoryboard to kind of reflect
that.
Or you might think, going intoit like, oh, I think this
character is going to be kind oflike taking the lead on a lot
of decision making and thenmaybe they don't.
So then it's like, okay, whatcan I give them an episode two,
so we can see like what they'regood at or or what in their

(09:20):
backstory is like traumatizing,and then they just kind of like
push on different keys on thekeyboard until we hopefully make
some music.
It never feels like it's goingwell when it's happening.

Sandeep Parikh (09:33):
And you're just doing that in the moment, like
you're not like following ascript here.
You're like kind of like in themoment, reacting to what's
happening and then just decidingand feeling out intuiting, like
okay, now it's time to get yourideas.

Jasmine Bhullar (09:45):
There's times I'm like, oh, I'm sure they'll
love this and probably not likethis, and then it's like the
opposite, where it's like, oh no, I actually love this MPC and I
hate this other MPC.

Sandeep Parikh (10:03):
So that's fun too.
Hey, so sorry to interrupt, butthe rest of this episode is for
our Patreon subscribers only.
So if you'd like to hear therest of this juicy conversation,
let me tell you it gets juicy.
There's another 50 minutes50-5-0 of this conversation over
at patreon.
com/desiquest.

(10:24):
Thank you so much forsupporting the show.