by Gina Scarpa

A delayed flight and a confused cab driver ended up costing father/daughter team Hoskote and Naina their chance to win The Amazing Race. On Sunday night's season premiere, seven teams boarded a flight bound for Chile while the remaining four were stuck on a second flight that was three hours delayed. Despite their efforts to make up ground, Hoskote and Naina checked in last at the pit stop. We talked with them today about their disappointing loss and their love for the race.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What was your main motivation for trying out for The Amazing Race this season?
A. Hoskote: Well, we have been avid fans of the show since 2003. This show is the best reality show on television. They should get an Emmy every year, in my opinion! We love adventure, traveling, and this show combines two elements that I absolutely love. This was the ideal format for us and we've been dreaming of getting on the show for year.
A. Naina: Adventure, travel, and money! The money would've been great but the fact that I got to spend time with my dad, who's my best friend... I love him to death. My dad supports me and he basically adds to what I don't have in any strength or knowledge. He was a good partner and we were very compatible in that sense. It was a great way to create memories. I'm not going to be his little girl forever, hopefully! I have three other siblings so I wanted time just for me and my dad.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: I know it's hard to assess things during the first leg but did anyone stand out to you as a team you'd want to watch out for?
A. Naina: Given the way in which the flights were structured, we didn't even meet 7 of the teams so I have no idea. What I saw Sunday is all I got to see as to what they're about. We didn't get to interact with them at all. We thought we were just as good as the other three teams we were with. We were all super competitive. I don't feel like one had any advantage over the other.
A. Hoskote: Both of these flights arrived in Santiago 30 minutes within one another. Unfortunately, there was a tornado in Dallas, our team was an hour and a half leaving Los Angeles, and then there was a delay in Santiago. Before we even left LA, we knew we were going to be 3 hours behind. I was hoping that I would be left to my own devices and navigation skills and find my way to Santiago to change my flight. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that. I was hoping it was a non-elimination. I can't control that. It was not meant to be. If I had the choice, I would've found my own way. It was basically competing with 3 teams because the other 7 teams were done. For someone who has been dreaming of getting on the show and being competitive, that was disappointing.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: One of the biggest issues that plagues teams is not reading the clue. When you realized at the second Road Block that Hoskote had to row the boat, what went through your minds?
A. Naina: Okay, well what wasn't shown was that my dad and I reread the clue and we knew my dad had to do it. However, the fact that we arrived last and Brandon had finished basically told us that we had no choice. We knew we were going to be eliminated. All I had done the last 2 days was ride an airplane and ride in a taxi. My dad, being as loving and adoring as he is, could not see that I would've done this whole race without having done anything. He said to go ahead and row the boat and have some kind of experience and memory. I did what I did and it ended up getting dark. We read the clue correctly. It was just something to go out with a bang.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Leaving this early on is so tough for any team. How did you handle your elimination?
A. Naina: I'll speak for myself first but I was devastated. I had come to compete on this race. Obviously, things didn't go my way and I didn't get to show myself, my dad, or America what I was capable of. I never thought this would happen to us. There are less competitive teams on the race this season. I knew that I would certainly beat them in a lot of the physical tasks if I was put up against them directly and we hadn't had a late start. The flight was the major thing that frustrated me. The fact that we only got to compete against 3 teams, the fact that the taxi driver was incompetent, the fact that the flight was delayed, it felt like nothing was going our way. We got very unlucky and it really ate me up.
A. Hoskote: Winning and losing is a part of life and that's the name of the game. You go into any competition, you win some and you lose some. The idea of competition is that when things aren't going your way, you should be able to change it so you can compete. When you lose and there's nothing you can do, it's a deer in the headlights situation. That was the most frustrating thing to me. All the years of my life, I have been put in a lot of tough situations and worked my way out of it and been quite successful. There was nothing I could do here. My competitive juices were flowing, I had the skills to do it, but I could not do anything about it. That is tough to take. We love the show, I'm competitive and very physically fit... we were rearing to go.

The Amazing Race airs Sundays at 8/7c on CBS.

(Image courtesy of CBS)

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