For such a big guy, we saw and heard very little of Nichal - although he claimed he was far more vocal and much more active than we saw as he tended to work out of time with the others.
Since he was more prone to the physical work, such as fetching logs and carrying them through the forest, he preferred to wait until late afternoon when it was cooler, before exerting himself - a time when others would be sleeping. Similarly, he'd be resting or sleeping while the others worked in the heat of the day.
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He found the lack of food troublesome, perhaps more than others, because with his size and physical activity, he normally eats six to eight meals a day and thus had to work on his mental strength to conquer his hunger.
About the other contestants
Talking of other contestants, he made the interesting observation that he considered the tribe to be testing Lisa by not telling her to do anything. And while she seemed initially to have found this liberating and responded with some very mild activity, she soon reverted to her characteristic laziness. He claimed to consider himself a good judge of character and said he found her to be the laziest person he's ever met.
He said he also found Lorette to be "socially incompetent" and thought Hein resented him for voting against Nicola and even hinted that there was something racial in his vote. But he t emphasised that he was newer in the tribe and she appeared to him to be inactive and merely following Hein around all the time.
Deciphering his occupation
I was puzzled that his "occupation" was listed as "strongman competitor". How can that be a money-earning occupation? I thought one would have to pay to enter such contests, rather than be paid for participating. And even if he won every single such contest in Africa, how could he earn enough to make a living? And then we were told that he competes in weight-lifting competitions, is training to be a power lifter and loves super-bikes and drag racing. These are hardly occupations, but expensive hobbies. One wonders how he can afford such activities.
He said he felt this may have been what people considered interesting about him, but he is an accountant by trade and runs his own business in interior design. He apparently found accounting "too formal” and although he's hardly the effete and fluffy sort of guy we might imagine as doing interior design, he's apparently very successful in the field and far from fluffy.
He felt he got on well with Amanda (a fellow accountant) as well as with Rijesh, Elsie and Angie. As for alliances, he pointed out that he arrived back from exile island late and assumed that initial alliances had already formed and decided not to blunder in, but rather to wait and see who would approach him. And that was Rijesh. As for the others, he said his strategy was to "sit back and let them fight among themselves".
‘Survivor isn’t for sissies’
When asked about the comments in the press releases about him that he "doesn't tolerate sissies", he emphasised that this was nothing like homophobia, as he meant male or female sissies – in his mind, people who aren’t prepared to face the realities of the show.
"Don't do Survivor if you're going to cry about missing your luxuries or your boyfriend - rather watch it on TV!" he said. He added that it is essential to block out emotional attachments and avoid making yourself vulnerable emotionally and then physically, by dwelling on unchangeable aspects of the situation you chose to get into.
The effect the game had
He claimed he felt changed - mainly by his one and a half days on exile island, where there was nothing else to do but think deeply - and is more clear about what's important in life. At one stage, sitting in heavy rain, he said he prayed to the Sea Goddess (he is Hindu) to relieve him and within a short time the rain stopped, the clouds cleared and the stars were out again. Thus, he said, his spiritual values became stronger than before.
One other aspect of the experience he stated was that after being on the island he had serious of getting married for the first time and had not taken this option so seriously before. He added that he felt strongly he never wanted to be so alone again, but admitted that since returning to Durban, he has back-tracked a bit on this resolve and is enjoying a single play-boy lifestyle again.
Coming from Phoenix, he commented that he found in the Indian community people tend not to enter such reality TV contests. But he saw the application forms when browsing the website looking for programming and decided on the spur of the moment to enter. When asked what his own mother thought of him entering Survivor, he said that she didn't know, as they were asked not to reveal this to their families, so his folks thought he was in Hong Kong on business. As his mother suffers from high blood pressure, this was maybe just as well and she is apparently with the idea now she knows.
He said he entered for the adventure, as he enjoys the adrenaline rush of such extreme challenges, but felt strongly enough about his own sense of principles and ethics that there were many things he would not do simply to win - such as to deliberately deceive others. Although he said he would have been happy to win.
Over-all, Nichal is a gentle giant, with a peaceful nature, who summed himself up as follows: " I go to bed smiling and I wake up smiling.”
(Professor M. A. Simpson, aka CyberShrink, September 2007)
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