Parvathy O knows the Miss World Lexicon
When it comes to beauty pageants, we desi girls know exactly what to say. Parvathy Omanakuttan was crowned 1st runner up in the Miss World 2008 pageant last night. At the risk of agitating a whole community of mallus and probably the Femina Miss India folks too, who crowned her Miss India 2008 in the first place and sent her to Johannesburg, I have to say that I didn’t think she had a chance in hell. I don’t think she is pretty. At the pageant finale (televised live on Zee Café last night), she wore this very uninspiring white gown . Her hair looked like it had just come out of the dryer in the laundromat. When she was the 15th name called forward to the semi-final line up, I attributed it to luck. Then they chose her for the final 5 and I muttered to myself “the beauty industry needs the Indian market, that’s why.” Finally came that all-important question, where beauty queens have traditionally delved deep into a pageant-lexicon that includes heart-warming syllables like ‘love’, ‘com...