Kerala’s, I mean India’s Parvathy Omanakuttan was almost Miss World 2008; in the end, however, it was Russia’s glamazon who won the crown. Just another instance of a brown girl being passed over in favor of some blue-eyed blonde…KIDDING. Sort of. ;) Here is her biodata, I mean, bio (thanks, nik and mithua):
Parvathy, hailing from Kottayam, grew up in Mumbai. Having graduated in Arts, she has studied Sociology, Psychology & English Literature.
Parvathy’s ambition is to further her studies in Psychology to learn more about human behaviour in depth…The lanky beauty is an ardent sports fan with a special interest in basketball, badminton and swimming.
She has a special talent for whistling. She likes listening to music, singing, reading, glass painting, acting, modelling, dancing (varying from local dances to ballroom and Latin dances) and learning new languages.[zee]
I have to ask, why is whistling important? Apart from being extra-able to hail a cab, re-enact the “Whistle while you work” scene from Snow White or tell some hottie that he or she is foine—in a rather inappropriate way—what is it good for? Never mind , I answered my own question with that list.
Parvathy is also very fond of a beautiful quote by former President APJ Abdul Kalam ‘Dreams are not what you see in your sleep, but dreams are that, which do not allow you to sleep’, hence her motto in life is ‘Dream with your eyes open’. [zee]
She might be fond of that dreamy quote, but I’m fond of the fact that she’s athletic. We at SM love us some sporty brown girls.
Speaking of those of us at SM, feast your eyes on this inter-bunker haterade Ennis sent to me, via G-chat:
4:30 PM Ennis: everybody knows mallu chicks are too short to win a pageant ;)
For your information, HATER, she is either 5’8 or 5’9; I’ve seen both heights listed in the 20+ articles I trudged through for this post (which were all filled with the same lame quotes). Either way, she’s tall enough. Oh, when will the North-South hate end? When, I ask? When? ;)
Reading the following made me smile with recognition:
Prior to witnessing the event on TV, close family members visited a few temples to offer prayers for Parvathy’s success.
Those present couldn’t contain their joy when Parvathy’s name was announced in the five semi finalists.
Then followed tense moments as they waited for the winner to be announced, and when the news came that she was the first runner up, not everyone was happy.
“Anyway, we are happy that she came second. If she had not won anything then it would have been bad. We are happy with what she has won,” Shantakumari said. [Hindu]
Shantakumari is Parvathy’s grandmother, and she wasn’t the only one who had great expectations for her grandchild:
“I’ll try my best to make every Indian all over the world proud,” Parvathy Omanakkuttan had said two days prior to the Miss World 2008 beauty pageant at Johannesburg. [express]
We’re very proud of you, penne. No need for the gnashing of teeth and bitter agonizing over what could have been:
“I have performed better than others in the personality and question-answer round. This is not just. All those who watched it yesterday felt like that. I feel the jury’s decision was unfair”, Parvathy told India Vision channel on Sunday.
“I had confidence. I could do well. The question-round did not come as a challenge to me considering my background in literature,” Parvathy, who hails from Kottayam in Kerala, said. [NDTV]
She reminds me of one of my cousins in Kerala, a pedantess who once apologized to my Aunt and Uncle for getting a 98 on a test, while simultaneously insisting that the grade was unfair. My father proudly related this anecdote about perfectionism to me, to inspire me to emulate such fastidiousness. I responded, “I ain’t the one”. I then received a lecture on how “ain’t” was a word, but that’s a tangent to be abused on a future post.
Miss World is the original and most popular beauty pageant in the world, which was launched in 1951. Each year young women from every country compete to go through rounds such as the Most Beautiful Smile, the Swimsuit round, Miss Talented and the Question & Answer round, etc, and judges select the contestant who has the winning combination of beauty, glamour, poise and intelligence. [Zee]
Well, I learned something new. I didn’t know that the Miss World pageant is more popular than Miss Universe. I also didn’t know that first runner-up was such a bad thing. I’m lying. I’m Desi. I totally know that.
