Being a trailblazer comes with benefits and drawbacks, as Karishma Patel can tell you. The personal injury attorney is the first Indian-American contestant in Survivor history, bringing with that statistic simultaneous respect and pressure from her community. She arrives on the island with no discernable life path in front of her, hoping her time in Fiji will bring her clarity on her ultimate destination. Until then, she’s going to try to play down her leadership instincts, listen to her gut, and hopefully come up with ideas for a Survivor theme party along the way.

Read on for my chat with Karishma, and make sure to check in with Parade.com every day for interviews with this season’s contestants and other on-set tidbits. Survivor: Island of the Idols premieres on September 25 with a special 90-minute premiere on CBS.

Tell me about yourself.

I’m 37 years old from Houston. I’m a personal injury trial lawyer. I’ve been married for about four and a half years. I’m an adventure junkie, but not necessarily an outdoorsy person. I’m here figuring out who I am and how strong I am.

What brought you to Survivor for your latest adventure?

I think it’s in my blood. I’m a Sagittarius, and we’re by nature very spirited people. We’re hunters, always looking for new challenges and things. I was at the point in my life where I thought, “I’m bored, I’m tired. I don’t really feel entirely comfortable where I am in my life, and I need to change that.” I got confused and I figured, “There’s a casting call going on. Let’s try something new this weekend.” I thought the adventure and fun new thing would be going to a casting call at a mall! Lo and behold, it led me to open the door into the ultimate adventure.

What got you into practicing law?

My mom was a legal assistant. When I was 14, she brought me onto her law firm to do some filing. I would take the trolley outside of my high school to the neighboring town and walked to her law firm, where I would do filing for $3 an hour. My mom had this dream for me that I’d eventually be a lawyer. Because she got married very young and moved to America, she never got to see that dream out. She wanted it for me. I was handed into the profession. I think my characteristics then fell into place.

I can imagine that leaves you wondering what else could be out there for you; hence the Survivor soul searching.

You hit the nail on the head. You ask people who know me and they’ll say, “Karishma is born to be a lawyer. This is exactly what she’s supposed to do.” But nobody, myself included, knows me entirely. People know what’s on the outside, that I have a strong presence and a dominating voice, and I like to be a leader. They translate that to me being the perfect lawyer, but I don’t know if that brings me joy. I don’t know if the things that are perfect on paper are right for me.

Going back to your mother, I know she immigrated to America from India.

Yes, I’m a first-generation Indian. I’m the first Indian contestant on Survivor. Natalie Anderson was Sri Lankan, and she’s very vocal about not being called Indian, which is right. Just because they’re near each other doesn’t mean they’re the same.

Do you feel a sense of responsibility, being the first Indian-American contestant?

I absolutely do. I’m out here doing something that traditionally speaking a 37-year old married Indian woman is not supposed to do. This is the risk I’m taking because I feel very strongly that your strength and value come from your ability to take risks and go against the grain. Not from complying with the standards your culture puts on you. It’s being able to stand up to those ideals that aren’t necessarily yours and saying, “I understand this is your generation and how you grew up in India. But I’m Indian-American. I was born and raised here.”

I’m a strong, intelligent woman. I don’t need to necessarily follow the rules of getting married, having babies, and staying home. That’s not my path, and that’s okay. That doesn’t make me any less Indian. That doesn’t mean I love my country or my parents any less. All it means is I love myself more. I feel very strongly that I’m a capable woman and I’m allowed to come out here. Indian women are supposed to get their husband’s permission to do anything. I don’t need anyone’s permission.

Will the Hindu culture inform the game you want to play?

There are certain tenets of Hinduism that I think will be very important to remember in the game of Survivor. Hinduism has a very strong belief in detachment from material things. You find your path from within. Hinduism also believes in being the best you that you can be. It’s the concept of dharma, your duty in life, whether you’re a wife, a student, or a Survivor player. I’m out here practicing Hinduism when I’m being the best Survivor contestant I can be.

What will people perceive you as?

I’m worried they’re going to find me threatening, that the Karishma back home is going to be displayed all over my face. Back home, I walk into a room and I command attention. I’m not being pretentious about it. I do that because I love attention. I like to be heard, and I think people are okay with that because I take a leadership role. I like it when all eyes are on me. I’m a tall, dominating presence. Out here, I’m going to have to remind myself, “Karishma, tone it down.” I want to think like the real Karishma, whose wheels are always turning. But the outside demeanor has to show something else.

I want to work hard on being softer, more endearing, likable, and relatable. I want people to form genuine relationships with me and not be scared of me. If you ask people in my life to describe me in one word, I get “intimidating.” One of my closest friends told me before I came out here, “I know you’re going to try to control things and take charge. You’re a scary person, not gonna lie. You need to listen to people to understand, not to defend.” When I’m listening to somebody, my subconscious is usually coming up with a response. That’s the lawyer brain. I need to stop that and tone that down. Push the lawyer brain down a little bit and show I’m caring.

What do you desire in an alliance partner?

I’m looking for predictability, somebody I can read who proves time and time again that I’ve read them correctly. I’m looking for somebody who’s very social like me. I think it’s important to work with people who bring you information. In this game, knowledge is power. But you can’t get all this knowledge by yourself. You only have two ears on this one head; you can’t be everywhere to hear everything. I’m looking to play with people who can be another set of eyes and ears for me. Survivor is my remedy to the pain and anxiety of indecisiveness.

Can you elaborate on that?

It goes back to me being an over-thinker. My brain’s always going. I tend to get anxiety over whether I’m making the right decision. In the game of Survivor, it’s all about timing and knowing when to strike. You have to be very, very quick to rely on your instinct. At Tribal Council, if somebody says something that doesn’t feel right, you have to figure out how you’re going to adapt to that. Survivor is going to force me to do it, and that’s going to be a really important lesson for me. You can’t prepare for that. I can train my biceps; I can’t train instinct.

Let’s give you an opportunity to check in with that instinct. When your tribe visits Tribal Council, would you rather vote on strength or loyalty?

Oh lord, you’re only giving me two choices. Everything’s grey to me, Mike Bloom. In the premerge, I want to keep loyalty. Strength is a subjective term. Somebody who may be physically strong may not be strong in other areas. And who knows? The next challenge may require a different kind of strength. But there’s no different kind of loyal.

Give me a Survivor winner and non-winner you want to play like.

One winner I want to base my gameplay off of is Wendell. I know it’s very recent, but I really, really liked the way he laid low premerge. He made it a point to have conversations and form relationships with everybody. But within that, he had core alliances with certain people he felt strongly with. He wasn’t out there to build a resume right off the bat and start the game running full speed ahead. He was very methodical in his approach to the game and waited until it was right for him to reveal himself as a true threat.

Can I give an unpopular pick for my non-winner? Angelina. She was a very, very unique player. She was a force to be reckoned with. She knew the game and who the threats were, but she had a lack of social awareness. She didn’t take the time to realize how she was coming off. I want to play like Angelina in that I really want to be a strong, independent, forceful person who does not apologize for anything. But I want to execute it in a way that I don’t come off the way she did. I respect her very much. She just annoyed the crap out of the people at home, so I can’t imagine how much she was annoying the crap out of the people here. Survivor gods, please tap into that sixth sense of mine and make sure I know when I’m being annoying.

You wrote in your bio that you like to host theme parties. What’s the favorite theme you’ve hosted?

I did a Girl Scout cookie and wine tasting party. It was so fun. I did the research and pairings myself. I created little stations that had information about each pair. I even had a backup wine for each station. And the girls came over and loved it. This was years ago, and they still talk about it. I think it was a cool, simple idea. I’m craving Girl Scout cookies now, which is probably not the best thing to happen the day before you go onto Survivor. (Laughs.)

The reason I host these theme parties is that I’m new to Houston. I was born and raised in Philadelphia, but I left my family and all my friends and moved to Houston the day after I got married. Making friends as an adult is really hard. And I’m a social person; I rely heavily on my friendships. I thought, “Okay, I need to make new friends.” My husband has a lot of friends, and they have wives. So I started hosting all these theme parties as a way to invite these wives over, give them a night away from the kids, and give them a fun, new thing to do while getting to know me better.

When you’re at your lowest low, what’s one memory you’ll pull from to boost your spirits?

It’s going to be my little brother. He came to visit me a couple of weeks before I came out here. I’m going to go back to the moment he said goodbye. I have to preface this by saying my brother and I have a roller-coaster relationship. We love each other more than anything in the world, but we have a really weird way of showing it. He said he’s proud of me, which I never heard out of his mouth before. Then he said, “Don’t quit, don’t cry.” When he tells me to do something, I better listen.

If you could bring one celebrity or fictional character out as your loved one, who would you pick?

I would say Wonder Woman. I would want Gal Gadot and only Gal Gadot. Lynda Carter’s great, but for me and my generation, I find strength in Gal Gadot. I want to see her in all of her glory. I would be like, “Can I borrow that lasso of truth for a little bit?” (Laughs.) It would be a reminder of mind over matter. I’m a lot stronger and more capable than I ever thought I was. Wonder Woman represents that a woman can be just as strong as a man and is capable of being a protector, supporter, and hero.

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