Capital contest

“Oh my God. A tiara! It is the most beautiful thing in the world,I don’t know if can bear its weight. It is like winning the world,” Roopam Sharma exclaims,her hair falling over her hazel eyes. Sharma,18,a first-year Ramjas College student,is dressed in her mother’s red sari and a noodle-strap blouse. “I want fame and money,but fame more,” says Sharma,daughter of a school teacher from Rajouri Garden.

As Pooja Singh,a Bhutanese native,sits on the chair,her boyfriend,a police sub-inspector with a pistol tucked in his waistband,arranges her sari with confidence. Of all the girls,Singh takes the most time on the chair—the make-up woman says her arms,back,throat,neck,forehead,cheekbones and chin need a lot of touching up.

On January 27,the event,to be held at a small auditorium in Rohini in North Delhi,is scheduled to start at 6.30 pm,but there is not a flutter in the backroom till 8.15. The Miss Rajdhani contest,organised by SLJP Fashion Institute in Rohini,is in its second year and Bobby Pandit,director of the institute,says the quality of the models is improving. Pandit says some of the models who participated last year went on to become Miss Greater Noida,Miss East Delhi and other titles.

On a maroon bench,Apurva Rudra sits in a black salwar-kameez,the only contestant who hasn’t bothered to wear a sari. “It is a strange title—Miss Rajdhani,” she whispers. Rudra,from Sonepat,was a Maxim finalist last year,and then went to Dubai to work in an event management company. “I just came here because one of my friends called me. I am not doing this for money,just for him,” she says.

The ramp is,at the most,a dozen strides long. The girls walk first in ethnic,then in western dresses. The hundred-odd people in the auditorium whistle,shout and clap. The tiara is nowhere in sight. To the dismay of the models,the organisers forgot to buy even a fake tiara.

When the winner is announced,the man with the pistol leaps in joy. They won,him and his girlfriend,but their happiness is drowned by the cries of “cheating,cheating” from the crowd. “Roopam is the winner,Priyanka is the winner,Sakshi has won,” they shout.

Neither the special guest,Praveen Kumar—Bheem of Mahabharat—nor the judges can control the situation,accused as they are of favouring the policeman.

Priyanka decides not to participate in small fashion events anymore and Roopam Sharma is distraught that she still hasn’t won the world—her tiara.

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