FAME IN A NIGHT!

Lakshmi Pandit had just been crowned Pond''s Femina Miss India-World 2004. "Hello! Yes! It''s a wonderful feeling. I feel I have made the impossible possible... Ash, Diana, and now me! I need to make my country proud. I need to win the crown on the international front too. Oh God! Everybody — the whole world — wants to talk to me at the same time.I can''t believe it. Wow! Tell me please, will this be published somewhere? Can you please send it to me," she urged our correspondent who spoke to her minutes after she had won the crown.
Welcome to the stage where dreams come true. Where heroes are born. Where ordinary effloresces into extraordinary in the flash of an arc light. If young Lakshmi couldn''t believe she was going to be published in a premium daily, the evening''s Big Queen Tanushree Dutta — Pond''s Femina Miss India-Universe 2004 — was apologetic because she couldn''t give us a number on which we could keep in touch with her. "I don''t have a mobilephone. Maybe, I''ll have to buy one now," said the exultant student-turned-beauty queen. For Tanushree, her win is a victory for all small-town girls. "I was born and brought up in Jamshedpur," she told us, minutes after being anointed the winner. "I would like Jamshedpur girls — and all other small-town girls — to know that one needs to believe in oneself, be ambitious and career-oriented. If you have these qualities, nothing is impossible. Truly, there are no boundaries for your dreams...." She told us of how "dad and mom broke down, back in Jamshedpur," when she called them after the results were announced. Needless to say, we could discern a perceptible lump in her throat too, across the crackling phone line.
For Sayali Bhagat, life will never be the same again. "This is indeed a very emotional moment for me. There were times when I thought I wouldn''t be able to make it. But the moment my name was announced, my heart began to go Boom-Boom. It beat so fast..." says Pond''s Femina Miss India-Earth 2004.
Whoever thought this was just a glorified catwalk! Ask the jury members their criterion for selecting the winners and you might just understand what the girls actually go through. Says Sanjay Dutt: "My criteria? I looked for fitness and beauty but I rated intelligence higher." Small wonder then, Munnabhai confessed he wanted to give a jaadu ki jhappi to all the contestants!