Confidence rules the roost

The South zone finals of ‘Gladrags Little Miss’ and ‘Master India 2012’ and ‘Gladrags Mrs India 2012’ beauty pageants, held at Royal Orchid Hotel recently, was an evening of fun and beauty for the whole family.

Maureen Wadia, the editor of ‘Gladrags’ magazine who conceptualised these beauty pageants, ran the show.

Over 40 children, aged between three and 15, took part in the pageant. While it was a cute display of girls in pink frocks and boys in tucked-in shirts, most of them seemed quite oblivious to what was going on and were happily waving to their parents while on stage or dancing around without a care in the world.

“It was nice to see my son up there. But if you are going to have so many children as participants, you need to have better staff to manage them. Still, it was quite a fun-filled evening,” says Liuba Giddens, a parent.  

Akshata won the title of ‘Gladrags Little Miss India — South (Junior)’ while her male counterpart, Vedarth Jain won ‘Little Master India’ and donned the golf attire very confidently for his age. Fifteen-year-old Crystal Crasta won the ‘Little Miss India Senior’ category, while the well-spoken Jay Sethai was ‘Gladrags Little Master India —  South’ (Senior).

“I’m very happy and excited. I’ve done a few shows in school before but I never thought I’d be a zonal winner of a ‘Gladrags’ beauty pageant!” says Crystal, proudly clutching on to her crown.

The second half of the evening acted as a platform for married women to take the limelight and fight for the title of ‘Gladrags Mrs. India — South 2012’. Be it in ethnic wear or Western, the 25 contestants confidently presented themselves and took on questions in the question-answer round. Divya M S, who also represents India in the international swimming arena, emerged the winner.

The first runner-up was Vijeta Jha, who was followed by Gunjan Tyagai as the second runner-up. “This is the first pageant that I’m doing after marriage and it feels amazing to have won! It’s a very different field and competing with well-maintained mothers is very tough,” shares Divya.

“At the moment, I’m balancing sports, modelling and a business which my husband and I recently started. It’s challenging but very fulfilling,” she adds.

The judges for all the categories were Maureen Wadia, bharatanatyam dancer Vani Ganapathy and Pinky Balijee of the Royal Orchid group. “Maureen has made a married woman feel as important as an unmarried one. Why shouldn’t a perfect wife, a loving mother or a working woman, who is a mother and wife, feel as beautiful as can be?” concludes Vani, with a smile.