She may have contended herself with a third position at the Vivel Miss Kerala 2009, but Bonnie Mary Mathew was the sure winner on Monday as she admirably handled a fourth estate who was seemingly out there to nail her and her two friends.
Bonnie, a third year Communicative English student at Ernakulam St Teresa’s College and the only non-Trivandrumite among the first three, was confidence personified with her poise look, brainy answers and perfect voice.
When asked why girls already so brimming with confidence needed a beauty pageant to develop their personality, she shot back.‘‘It’s like saying your parents are educated then why do you go to school. These are opportunities to grow and learn as a person, I think we must see it that way and use these options or opportunities to gain experiences.’’
Miss Kerala Archana Nair, first runner up Geethu Christie and Bonnie were at the Press Club for a chit-chat with the media. Where they thought the worst is over at the pageant held in Kochi last week, the three beauties were literally ragged by a bunch of mediapersons. Almost as if the quizzers had suddenly found their voices, which sometimes goes missing at more important press meets.
It, however, did not deter the young ladies from keeping their calm. Except when they were asked to reveal the total expenses they had to incur at the pageant, that is.
‘‘I do not remember,’’Archana’s first response. Then she mellowed down to ‘‘It didn’t cost much, as clothes and accessories were already there with me. What we bought were shoes for the final event.’’The organisers, Impressario Event Management India Limited, had asked for a caution deposit of Rs 25,000 but only half went in the way of food and accomodation, the balance amount will be returned, the ladies agreed.
However hard the media tried, the two (Geethu remained silent till the end) evaded all questions on their total expenses.
Asked how they took the High Court’s stand on appointing a panel to keep an eye on the conducting of the beauty pageant,‘‘Let’s wait till August 12th and see,’’was Archana’s reply.
Nineteen-year old Archana, a native of Thiruvananthapuram, is settled in the US, where she is a bio-engineering student at the Stanford University. When asked how an US-settled girl can uphold Kerala culture through a title,‘‘I speak Malayalam, I am well-trained in Kerala dance forms, I can give you a half hour lecture on natyashastram if you want,’’a confident Archana was heard saying.
If beauty pageants are opportunities to develop your competitive spirits, then why are not winners seen in competitive fields like civil service, a question was asked.‘‘The last ten years may not have seen an IAS from among pageant winners, it doesn’t mean there won’t be any. Besides, these are personal choices and civil service is not the only field to show your competence,’’ Bonnie did it again.
To the question if the title is a stepping stone to tinsel town, the beauties cried a big ‘NO’. Only to add,‘‘We never know where life will take us. The pageant had come our way quite accidently.’’
Geethu is a third-year Commerce student at All Saints’ College.‘‘I wasn’t posed any questions and there were only two mikes,’’she excused herself for keeping silent till the end.