|
 The
current Miss World is an Indian: Indian women have finally arrived
on the international beauty scene, winning the title thrice and
making it to the finals almost every year. As days go by, the
emphasis has shifted from mere beauty and a good figure to
personality, to beauty with brains. The new perception is that you
can't have a dumb belle as Miss World. This is a big plus for Indian
women; whose brains are as those elsewhere on earth.
Demonstrations by women activists near the beauty
contest sites over the years have helped in changing the concept of
beauty. The contest style has also undergone a sea-change and much
more dignity has been added to the whole show. The changes were very
visible during the current year's contest held in London. First,
there was no swimsuit round this year and only film clips of the
contestants, enjoying themselves at a beach resort in the Bahamas,
were shown. Secondly, there was emphasis on asking intelligent
questions and obtaining intelligent replies from the finalists in
the last round.
As I watched the show on television I found each finalist looking
as gorgeous as the other. I started wondering how the judges were
going to eliminate four girls out of the five. The judges asked all
five of them similar and ordinary looking questions and I was really
amused to hear some of the dumb answers. What finally ensured Yukta
Mukhi, the Indian contestant, the title, was certainly the fact that
her answers were more intelligent and reflected the depth of her
knowledge of the world and other cultures. One question concerned
the type of food the girls liked to eat. One said she liked the food
cooked at home and another said any type of food was all right and
she had no special taste. But Miss India replied that she liked Thai
food because it is exotic, tasty and spicy and is close to Indian
food. Thai food has already become an international rage. She could
not have given a better answer.
The girls were asked which person on earth they would like to be.
One said she would like to be her mother; another said she would
like to be her grandfather (they had no one else to emulate -
obviously they did not know about many great people). But Miss India
said she would like to be Audrey Hepburn (the heroine of My Fair
Lady) for the person she was, for her courage and what she stood
for. To me it was a remarkable reply. Audrey Hepburn had played a
lowly flower girl who transforms into the most elegant person. She
has shown a way to millions of young women who want to be something
larger than what they are in life. She has been an inspiration to
Yukta Mukhi, which helped her transform herself from an ordinary
teenager to Miss World. Yukta Mukhi's answer was the public
acknowledgement of the contribution in her life by a person who was
no more.
To the question, which part of the world she would like to visit
and why, a contestant replied that she would like to go to Canada
(to see the snow even though she was born in Russia and had seen
plenty of snow in her early life). The beauty from South Africa
wanted to go to London because she had relatives and friends there.
(I am sure there could be better reasons to visit London for a Miss
World contender). The Indian contestant said she would like to visit
Paris, because it is the fashion capital of the world and the hub of
art & culture and, of-course, the culinary capital of the world.
When I heard this reply I knew she would be Miss World because she
deserves to be the Miss World.
|
