Mumbai, March 30 (IANS) Aditi Arya, who is the proud possessor of this year's Femina Miss India World crown, says she always wanted to represent India on an international level and that inspired her to compete in a beauty pageant.
The 21-year-old model from Delhi suburb Gurgaon, who will represent India at the Miss World 2015 pageant, was enthroned as the winner of 52nd edition of the beauty pageant on Saturday at the Yash Raj Films Studio here by reigning queen Femina Miss India Koyal Rana.
Aditi credits her friends with persuading her to participate in the beauty pageant.
"I had always thought of representing India at an international level, if not through a beauty pageant then through other platforms such as business conferences, conclaves, events...
"I knew that I wanted to get there, some place where I make a statement and it becomes India's statement. To decide if it was through the beauty pageant route or some other route -- that was encouraged by my friends," Aditi told IANS in an interview.
Having worked in the corporate sector, she feels beauty pageants accord instantaneous empowerment and a platform to be heard, which is not the case with the corporate environment.
"In a corporate environment you climb up that ladder very slowly and you have to really make an effort to be heard. So empowerment comes at a very slow pace, but the beauty pageant just pushes you, it propels you forward instantly," she said.
Admitting her family was flabbergasted upon the mellifluous news being broken to them, she said she wasn't bound by any expectations from her family and had their "unending support", although their teary eyes gave away the pride they felt following Aditi's achievement.
"They were surprised. They never really bound me by expectations, so I never knew whether they expected me to win or not because they always told me that I have their unending support and the results don't matter to them.
"When I won, initially I did not know how happy they were but then I saw their teary eyes and I just knew that they're really proud of me," she said.
Talking about her key to success, Aditi accredited her willingness to learn for her achievements.
"I had two keys to success. One was to be my natural self and the other would be the fact that I'm always willing to learn. For me, learning never stops -- you never reach perfection, you just keep striving for it, no matter how better or worse you are compared to your competition.
"You just compete with yourself. You remain yourself, you don't change who you are for what the pageant might expect but at the same time, you're open to learning and you show the potential to grow," Aditi said.
She isn't a person who "denies opportunities" and likes to try out "everything" before selecting what's best for her.
Asked if she'd consider a career in Bollywood, Aditi said: "For me, the focus is the Miss World crown as of now, there's a lot that I have on my plate but I'm not the kind of a person who denies opportunities.
"I try everything and then I decide what works for me and what doesn't. I haven't thought of it as of now but, if in future it strikes me then I'll try and experiment, and if it works for me that's great..."
The Grand Finale of fbb Femina Miss India 2015 pageant, which was judged by eminent personalities from the film industry like John Abraham, Manisha Koirala, Sonu Nigam, Anil Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty, Sonali Bendre, Shiamak Davar and Chitrangada Singh, will be telecast on April 5.
(Siddharth Jha can be contacted at siddharth.j@ians.in)
Ravi Shastri told the biggest difficulty of Team India, said - Sachin Tendulkar had that worm ... which is no longer in anyone, find such a thing
Team India's former cricketer and head coach Ravi Shastri believes that there is a shortage of such batsmen in Team India, who have the worm of batting as well as bowling. Talking about the biggest
Bypassing American Threats! India will get Russia's S-400 missile defense system in due time
New Delhi. Russia will supply the S-400 missile defense system to India on time. The announcement has been made by Russia Ambassador Nikolay Kudashev, present in India. He has said that there will be
Russia-Ukraine War Updates: NATO's big bet to surround Putin, Sweden, and Finland will get fast-track membership
More than 80 days have passed since the Russo-Ukraine war. Even after passing so much time, the heat of the war does not seem to be diminishing. Western countries are taking various measures to
Tamil Nadu Floods: The Air Force came as an angel for the woman trapped in the flood, and gave birth to a child the very next day
The southern districts of Tamil Nadu are facing floods these days. Air Force and Army are engaged in relief and rescue operations. On Tuesday, the Air Force rescued a pregnant woman from the floods,
What will remain open and what will be closed in Lockdown 3, know where there will be no discount
New Delhi: Once again the lockdown period has been extended in the country. Now the lockdown has been extended from May 4 to May 17. That is, it has been extended for 14 days. However, in the areas of
Shikhar Dhawan-Sophie Shine: What news angered Shikhar Dhawan? He urged fans to stay away from clickbait and false statements.
Shikhar Dhawan has strongly responded to the alleged false statements being spread on social media about his personal life following his second marriage. He recently married Sophie Shine. He
Cemeteries submerged in Pakistan due to floods: Difficult to find burial place, people performing last rites in hills
This year floods and landslides have caused great destruction in Pakistan. In the remaining graveyard of the village, Ali Akbar is searching for solid ground between the marshy land and the green
GST 2.0: ACs, refrigerators, and TVs have become cheaper, but why haven't mobile and laptop prices decreased? Understand the full math behind the new tax slabs.
India launches GST 2.0 today, introducing major changes to tax rates. After the GST Council's September 3rd meeting, the country now has two core GST rates: 5% and 18%. The previous 12% and 28% rates
Extreme heat: No relief for four days in northwest, central, and eastern India; an alert was issued in many states
Entire North India including Punjab and Haryana is in the grip of intense heat. Fire is raining from the sky in North-West, Central, and East India including the plains of Jammu and Kashmir. It is
Today, Delhi in front of Royal Challengers Bangalore: 15 times RCB and 10 times DC won, Virat Kohli's form will be monitored
After losing to defending champions Chennai Super Kings in the previous match, Royal Challengers Bangalore will try their best to get back on track in today's double-header. Bengaluru will face Delhi
