A role model

Considering this title as a great honour,Shah shares,“I had applied to this pageant and made it to the top ten,but due to severe illness I couldn’t participate in the event in Atlanta conducted this May,but as luck had it,the organisers thought of me as a good contender,and decided to give me the award here in Pune itself.” So while Shah considers this pageant very different from others,she has planned to take the help of this crown to spread her message of compassion around the world. “This truth of today’s world is that one needs to put things in the right perspective so that people’s perception changes. I am a strong feminist,and I wish to work in that direction,” she shares.

So among much aplomb and grandeur Shah was crowned with this title. Says Adrita Khanna,Mrs. India- International,Pageant Director,Atlanta USA who specially flew to Pune for the event,”Such a city crown is generally given to the contestant that meets the eligibility criteria of Mrs. International Pageant System and the strength of her qualities like,passion for a cause,focus on family values,personality,current showing in the Mrs. India International pageant and the performance during the interviews helped us make this decision.” Talking about her future plans,Shah says,“I really want to work towards spreading awareness against social issues like child marriage and dowry. I also feel that parenting needs to be seen in a different light. We need to teach our children to have a healthy viewpoint.” Sapna is also looking at acting in television serials and making a career in that field. In the past Shah has won several local beauty pageants which helped her groom as a person. “I think the local beauty pageants that I was a part of helped me a lot. I was a novice in the field and I knew nothing about modeling,but these pageants gave me a good platform to begin.” Describing the Mrs India pageant as one that opens up another bracket for married women,Sapna says,“Other pageants makes a model of a woman,while this makes a woman a role model.”