"Exposed — Bollywood Themed Beauty Pageant"
Post on: March 31, 2018
The television was broadcasting a beauty pageant. When it came to the question segment, I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself. My wife looked at me in bewilderment and teasingly shook her head. She must have wondered if I was captivated by the beauties…
My thoughts raced back to more than 2 decades ago. It was the season of my traditional festival and a cultural show was held to commemorate the occasion.
In Singapore, there are various ethnic Indians — namely, the Tamils, Malayalees, Punjabis, Gujaratis etc. While every individual state in India celebrates their festivities with much aplomb, the locals here are not outdone either. The ethnic association catering to the social and cultural needs of each community organises such events to soak up the atmosphere — these are the essence of such a vibrant culture!
I attended the programme with my family. Besides the dance and song segment, the main allure was the beauty pageant. The audience came in droves, fully geared up for the show — placards and slogans adorned the auditorium.
And it started with a big bang… 10 beauties in elegant sarees sashayed on stage to the tune of a Bollywood hit song… Their poise and elegance were synchronised to the music to perfection.
Amidst the civility which was maintained, a boisterous group of young men could not contain their zeal. They were virtually teleported into the actual film world and began gyrating their hips like Shah Rukh Khan!
And the beauties, emboldened by the enthusiastic crowd, put their best foot forward. They had a choice to answer the questions in English or in their mother-tongue. One by one, they came and enthralled the crowd with their beauty and brains.
Everything went on smoothly until a beauty came upstage. She looked like a model from Paris with her deportment. She would have easily scored top marks for her beauty and catwalk… Until the much awaited “Q & A” time. When asked by the host on the mode of language, she said she preferred to answer in English.
After the exchange of pleasantries, the host asked: “What made you join this pageant?” She hesitated and then answered confidently, “So that I can ‘expose’ myself.”‘ Everyone couldn’t contain their glee and ruptured into a peal of thunderous laughter.
And the cheeky host was having a whale of a time. He was an experienced emcee and wanted to engage the crowd further in her slip. Although not a Freudian slip on her part, the host mischievously made it seem like one. He smilingly asked her: “And why would you want to ‘expose’ yourself to these wonderful people?”‘
She retorted, “So that I will gain confidence and these people can appreciate me for my boldness.” This was enough! It sounded like a script from the Bollywood movie whose song she had just danced to. This brought the whole house down albeit being spoken so innocuously.
The poor girl had meant to gain exposure by participating and to impress everyone with her confidence. However, the audience egged on by the light-hearted host, preferred to take the other naughty meaning of the word. Yes, she did receive thunderous applause. And a rowdy gang even gave her a standing ovation!
She was bewildered by the attention and could have sensed something was amiss. Nevertheless, she took it in her stride and curtsied the ecstatic crowd. Everyone was a true sport and made it such a memorable event to remember.
You might be wondering if she had won anything. Yes, she won a prize and above all, won the hearts of everyone for being such a bubbly personality.
This was a beauty contest which still leaves an indelible mark on me. Want to “expose” an online- magazine with a tinge of humour? Invite you kakis (buddies) to Like us on Facebook.
By Shaji Thomas Varughese
#JollyGoodTimes #ExposedBollywoodThemedBeautyPagent #ShajiThomasVarughesehttps://www.facebook.com/jollygoodtimes.org/
Photo: Pexels
Copyright © 2018 Jolly Good Times Agency.
