Pooja is 'Beauty With A Purpose' at Miss World

Pantaloons Femina Miss India Pooja Chopra may not have made it to the Miss World finals, with the crown going to Miss Gibraltar, Kaiane Aldorino, but she did bag the prestigious Beauty With A Purpose tag at the contest.
We spoke to Pooja’s sister Shubhra Mendonca after Pooja was eliminated from the Miss World ’09 contest held in Johannesburg, South Africa. She said, “Pooja has definitely made India proud.I am getting calls from all over India. But I still believe that if she had not been injured, she would have surely got the crown home. She had taken heavy painkillers just to be on stage this evening. She was crying backstage too. She was shattered because of this mishap. In the 23 years of her existence, Pooja has always been a winner, be it Miss Pune or at the NDA ball.”
Earlier, the title of Beauty With A Purpose won Pooja a fast-track entry into the Miss World 2009 Semi Finals. This special annual award programme chooses Miss World contestants who have shown, through charitable works, to have made a real difference to people in need in her country. Pooja was supporting a campaign to save the girl child back home.
Not long ago, a despondent Pooja, suffering from an ankle injury had said, “I already feel I am out of the competition.” She had been recommended three weeks’ bed rest by the doctor. However, this couldn’t deter this brave girl’s spirit, and she vowed to carry on. The silver lining came with the announcement of ‘Beauty With A Purpose’ title. The other nominees for the position were Miss Barbados and Miss Guatemala.
At the Miss World ’09 pageant, where all the contestants walked down the ramp confidently in high heels, Pooja appeared on the stage with a cast on. Bursting into tears after she was announced as a semi-finalist, she hugged anchor Angela Chow and said, “I am speechless at this moment.”
Shubhra added, “My mother is also in South Africa, and just told me that everybody is congratulating her. Being an elder sister, I was quite worried for her and had initially advised her to back out, but Pooja was furious to hear this. She replied, ‘It’s not Pooja Chopra participating in Miss World, it’s Miss India. If it was some other girl, she would have surely withdrawn from the pageant, but it was only Pooja’s strength and desire to win that kept her moving on.”