This Is Priyanka Chopra, Reporting Live For NDTV

This is an excerpt from Priyanka Chopra's chapter in a new book about NDTV and 25 years of television journalism, called More News is Good News. Order your copy on Amazon now.

It all began innocently enough, with a call and then a meeting to discuss my possible involvement in the NDTV Greenathon. I liked the idea instantly since I have always believed that the protection of the environment is of paramount importance and here was a chance to do my bit. So I agreed, unaware of the madness NDTV had in store for me! This story played out like a big-scale TV family drama, complete with its own set of characters:

- The patriarch: Dr Prannoy Roy. Respected by all and drooled over by the girls (I have real evidence of this). With his salt-and-pepper beard and red socks, he cuts a dashing figure and keeps the whole family together.

- The dutiful son: Vikram Chandra. In my case, he was more a partner in crime than anything else, but ever so often he would remember his role and drive me insane with his demands.

- The tough-nut older sister: Sonal Joshi. She was the first to connect on the Greenathon and I confess scared me into it. Her disapproving look when I sometimes went off-track was enough to scare me back to the right road. Most of my spontaneous outbursts usually happened away from those eyes.

- The court jester: Cyrus Broacha. Cyrus is...well, Cyrus, so I don't need to say much more except that there is no one else I know who can make me laugh as hard while at the same time overwhelm me with a strong desire to cause him physical pain.

- The supporting cast: or as I call them, the band of merry (and sometimes scary) girls...all equally important to this whole story. Priyanka, Aditi, Shagufta and all the people in the control room and backstage who used to alternate between screaming in my ear (via the in-ear piece) and finding ways to railroad me into doing a bazillion things every moment, while making it seem like it was a part of the plan all along!
 In the middle of it all was little I, trying my best to live up to the expectations of this eccentric bunch! Now that you've been introduced to the cast, you will understand how this journey suddenly went from zero to 1,000 kmph in what seemed like a second. The first year was a flurry of activity from the minute I said yes. 'We need to shoot a music video of the anthem for the Greenathon,' I was told. Sure, I said, but I want to make it interesting. A few brainstorming sessions later and we had it: a fun, live animation idea that promised to be different. Shoot day arrived and we discovered how it was total madness trying to shoot a live animation idea in just a day! We managed to pull it off, though, and the video was well appreciated.

I thought that was a great start, time to move on to the next thing. We began the research and discussion of ideas on what we should be doing on the twenty-four-hour Greenathon telethon. And that's when it hit me. Suddenly I felt that I was standing in the middle of a highway, all by myself, as I kept getting hit by two-tonne trucks, which in this case was Vikram and his band of merry girls.

There was a lot of material to cover when you want to dissect the current state of the environment. It was crazy. One moment I felt helpless thinking of the magnitude of the situation and the next I was driven to try and make some change, in whatever way I could. It was a roller-coaster ride of emotions. But I had my NDTV team right there, helping me through my varied emotions, egging and prodding me on.