Learn To Party Hard

Crowns and Roses
~Yuri~
LEARN TO PARTY HARD

I promised you that we’ll do something exciting in this issue. So how about partying. If any potential Miss India knows how to work hard, she also knows how to party hard. It is as important as being able to perform well on the pageant stage.

The judging of a pageant starts much before the actual night. Normally, all big pageants have what is normally called a training camp where all the contestants are taken through the strides and trained in various aspects of the pageant. Also, the final show choreography is worked out and rehearsed during this training. Some of the pre-contests like Miss Body Beautiful, Miss Beautiful Hair, Miss Gorgeous Smile and the Miss Talent are judged during this training period too.

So, if all the contestants are shacked up in a hotel or resort for an extended period of time, say a week or even a month, they do get together at the end of every grueling day for dinner, and are most times joined by the trainers, the organizers, and sometimes, even the odd judges. Needless to say that every action of theirs is being watched closely, every word uttered by them is being taken in by those who matter.

I recently had the privilege of training the contestants of the Miss India World pageant, where a girl called Gunjan Sarabhai won the crown. I would not say that Gunjan’s crowning was a foregone conclusion, because every contestant there offered tough competition, especially girl’s like Divya Parameshwaran from Bangalore, Pooja Kanwal, Catherine, and Priyanka Singh from Pune, but then, from the few days that the girls spent in the Botanix resort near Delhi, a clear picture started to emerge, not only from the training sessions, but also from the bonfire parties that followed in the night.

The way you sit and make conversation with total strangers, the way you hold your glass, the way you serve your plate, your eating habits, your sense of humor, your spirit of bonhomie on fun occasions, your ability to take life a little more lightly in the face of building tension as the big night approaches and many other such small traits make or mar the title for you. They could give you a clear edge over the others much before the contest has even started.

The catch here lies in not only learning all the right graces, but at the same time, forgetting that you are a contestant at the time of the social evenings. Most contestants cannot do this and fall for the bait. They try and make use of these evenings to score a point with the judges and behave or make utterances that they wouldn’t otherwise. The tendency to prove that you are a cut above the rest, the eagerness to act a little over smart, makes you act in an unwarranted manner, makes you say things that you might regret when you put your head down on the pillow that night, makes you curse yourself and lowers your self esteem to an extent that your performance starts to deteriorate right from the next morning. I spoke with Gunjan, Divya and Priyanka at length at a bonfire party. What appealed most to me was their ability to talk about life and fun in general, keeping the focus away from themselves. They seemed to be interested in the person they were talking to. They did not seem to remember that the contest was about to happen in a few days, a contest that could change their lives forever. And most of all, they seemed to be having fun doing that. Having the ability to do that is not possessed by most contestants, but is an asset by itself. The good news is, that this ability can be learnt. At a later stage in these series of articles I will talk about learning the art of having fun as well as being a great conversationalist. Till then, keep these issues at the back of your minds and remember, it is important to show your class at all times, whether you’re working hard during the training sessions, or partying hard later in the evenings.

If you want to ask me anything else about the subject, contact me on yuriyuriyuri@gmail.com

Keep polishing your skills till then. If you’ve missed out on a few issues of Models n Trends, get them from your friends and read them, every tip is as important as the next one. Most of all, remember, the crown is not as difficult as it might appear to be. Lots of love and I’ll catch you next issue with more.