Miss Nepal 2012 or was it Mishap Nepal 2012?

Oh I am just so sad. So sad to be seeing what I had to see yesterday. There were a million things that went wrong last night, I am only happy that the one thing that probably went absolutely right was SHRISTI SHRESTHA being crowned MISS NEPAL 2012. Now she completely deserved it and here is why.

SHRISTI IS THE BEST CHOICE AFTERALL

Apart from the fact that Shristi hails from a modeling background and is definitely, without a question THEE best model Nepal has ever given birth to, Shristi also happens to be a sweetheart of a person. And just being sweet doesn’t entitle anyone to win a title as big as Miss Nepal you might ask, and I agree with you. Sweet and beauty queens don’t go together and shouldn’t go together. Beauty queens are supposed to be fierce, passionate and above all a fantastic representative to the nation and Shristi is all of that.

I was skeptical that Shristi would fail to impress Nepali judges who are so hung up on giving points to those who speak well- like it’s a debate contest or something, which is of no advantage in international pageants where only the flair and charm and the elegance and stage presence is marked. (Questions in most international beauty pageants are given beforehand so that the contestants have time to prepare for it)

I was literally 50 feet away from the stage and yet Shristi could be clearly singled out from all that distance- massive stage presence she had. And thank god for her, she gave good answers to go with it too. That crown was her to kiss and for the first time in my life really got excited for a Miss Nepal winner who would go on to make Nepal so proud in Miss World pageant. Here is hoping, Shristi will finally do the needful to put NEPAL in the map of international beauty pageants and international organizations finally take care to notice that NEPAL indeed sends fabulous representatives after all.

The Runner-ups

I always saw Nagma as the runner-up. For a height that good (she is 5.10”) and speaking abilities she would also make a very good representative for Nepal at the Miss Earth pageant and I wish her all the best.

 Shubekchha Khadka did win her spot because of her good answers and here is wishing her the best for Miss International pageant where she represents Nepal.

OK.. now comes the dirty bit …

“Mero Budi Ko Ramro Chha”…

“Mero Budi ko ramro chha”, exclaimed a guy in the audience. His friends asked, “ke ramro chha? ” and he went, “mero budi ko nighty nai ramro chha yiniharu ko bhanda.”

Sad but true. Some of the designs the girls were made to wear at Miss Nepal 2012 was just so hedious. Some of them came out wearing nighty-doubles, some ragged tatters- if they’re called designer pieces please, we’d rather have the girls wearing ready made, Bangkok imported clothes which could be much more decent to look at.

And it looked kinda unfair to contestants as some had really good attire to wear and some had to settle for trashy. A big thumbs down on the designs this year. It was sad to see girls parading around in tents in the name of gowns.

TOP SECRET INFO# I asked a designer who formerly designed beautiful clothes (not the best, and theres a reason, keep reading) for miss Nepal contestants as to why “IT”(cant mention the gender here lol) didn’t design clothes for the girls this time. And “IT” went, “Miss Nepal never gives money. They are yet to clear my dues from previous years. Why work for free?”

Absolutely agree with what “IT” had to say. I mean, designers are artists really and god knows, Nepal don’t lack talented, gifted designers. But why would they want to pull off making that many dresses for free? Shouldn’t their talent be duly paid? And where does all that BIG sponsored money go to? No wonder even the selected designers make below mediocre designs because HELLO that is what you get for trying to make people work for free.

And also this time, I heard that each contestants would be getting their own designers and this piece of info had all our hopes escalated. How ruthlessly it was thrashed last night. MISS NEPAL DESIGNS, GOWNS, DRESSES SUCKED BIG TIME (except for a few).

The Venue

When I first heard that this time Miss Nepal would be held Hotel De’l Annapurna’s pool side, I imagined the event to be elegant and classy. Classy.... my backside.

I am sorry for the language and I am sure you can sense my fury here because please, Miss Nepal has been doing this same damn thing for more than 15-16 years now. And why does after all this time, do they still muddle up and make an event this respected and this hyped- the trashiest event of the year?

Miss Nepal the most glamorous event of the year – they call themselves. Ermm not really please wake up and smell the fury , dear organizers. How can you make the same mistakes year and year and year again is what I don’t understand.

·      The sitting arrangement looked like it was some bhoj-bhater ceremony of some kind. Like a bunch of dohori groups would soon be sitting on the stage in two divisions and start doing their business. Not so classy eh!

·      And even if one would compromise on the sitting arrangements I don’t understand why more passes were printed than its sitting capacity. People were standing because of unavailability of seats. Not so classy.

·      The stage was bad. I mean it was so , you know, school-functions-have-better-stage-than-that types. I at least assumed that it mustve looked good on TV but NO, people who watched the event on TV had the same notion.

·      And you wont believe the sight at the dinner party. Just check out the photo below. Not so classy again.

Miss Nepal after-show dinner party had a serpentine line -perhaps one that was longer from all the lines outside petrol pumps- waiting their turns to grab a bite of the Annapurna food. No thankyou!

The Emcees

TOP SECRET INFO: I met the main guy from the sound system and I asked him, what is wrong with the emcees mic today and he said, “Kei bhachhaina. Mic on nagari bolepachhi testai ho”. Hmm.. so who is to blame whom here. That still is top secret.

“We have one more SLOT to go “ said Sahana, when announcing the top-10 contestants which just didn’t sound right but apart from that I personally believe she did a fairly good job. Biraj on the other hand is a sweetheart of a boy, but in my harshly honest opinion he was just too young to host the show. He is only 20 and his voice still sounds a bit kiddish and immature and well not too manly compared to the emceeing giants of the country like Asish or Prasan Syangden. Biraj, I have no doubts will make the best emcee  in town in a few years and is superb in hosting concerts perhaps but not an event like Miss Nepal.

Other flaws

·      Bad performances, I really don’t understand what they were trying to do there. Perhaps if you start paying artistes the money they are entitled to, good performers will come forth to be a part of Miss Nepal. 

·      The lighting effects would’ve been better if they’d not attempted to do anything at all. Nepal has a long way to go when it comes to stage lightings, settings and sound.

·      Talking about sound, we all know how the mic went off like a hundred times.

·      The final background score when Miss Nepals were being crowned was just so pathetic. It was the music score from the movie star wars … so yeah please someone  or the one who decided on the music care to explain to me the relation between STAR WARS and BEAUTY PAGEANTS??

·      The miss Nepal event was about 2 hours- the ads lasted for one-and-a-half-hours perhaps. I mean wouldn’t it be better if some performances were put up than play the same ad over and over and over again? What is up with that. Oh I know, on a second thought though, with performances that bad they’d rather have us watch the ads instead.

MISS NEPAL being taken for granted, perhaps!

Accept it or not, Miss Nepal is definitely the most talked about event of the year in Nepali media after - I don’t know, the PM elections? But that keeps happening every 2 months or so … (sarcasm intended ;) ), so yeah, I would say as a journalist myself that MISS NEPAL is thee most hyped event in the Nepalese calendar.

 I saw two huge, super VIP looking cars from Srilankan embassy that had come to be a part of the show and god knows how many other internationally affiliated people/organizations were there in the audience last night.

So when a show that is supposed to be elegant, classy and top-notch event of the year puts up an act like it did yesterday, it is not just hidden treasure that has to be ashamed , the appaling show was rather a big blow on faces of all Nepalis who expect the standards of show business to improve each year but which seems to be unfortunately going down.

Lessons to be learnt

I have watched better shows than that here in Nepal which are well managed. Perhaps its time hidden treasure give away (if its so difficult for them) their management bit to be handled by some other “young but experienced ” team the next time.

There are ads playing over and over and over again which signifies the presence of a huge pool of sponsors. But where does all that money go if youre not paying the working designers, the emcees or not even properly sponsoring the winning contestants. (Fact# last years emcees hosted the event for free)

Hopefully a lot of investment will be done in our three representatives in making them international -beauty-pageant ready and not be another Nepali contestant without proper clothes to wear and well stuff like that.

Open air, outdoors venue doesn’t work. Proven from last night so please switch back to indoors venue with extravagant, fabulous set and stage the next time.

There are a thousand talented artistes in the country and how come you choose acts like those to be staged on national TV ? Please , I say please from depth of my soul to wisely select your performers the next time. If announcing the three winners was the only purpose of Miss Nepal then you could have it done within your four walls. If youre promising us of a glamorous event then give us one. The ENTERTAINMENT factor was missing big time. Hopefully the boredom of an event that happened last night that catapulted in half the audience walking out of the show in the middle of the program will not be repeated.

I believe the panel of judges should be thoroughly briefed on how to mark the contestants. Selecting miss nepals just for their answers alone would’ve made sense if the winners did not go to international platforms to represent our country. But that is not the case. High marks should be given to girls who stand out on stage, who are tall and look presentable. Conversing abilities should be judged to some extent but should never be the ultimate deciding factor for a winner. You want our girls to bring home international titles? Then select good representatives please.

And lastly but  most importantly, hidden treasure or any other mentors and gurus of Miss Nepal, should definitely keep away from interacting with the contestants parents or family of any kind. When the anti-pageant women groups come protesting the most used phrase to tackle them is “these are girls above 18 and have full rights to make their choices in a democratic country exercising freedom of their right of choice”.

 So taking this into consideration, families should be out of these contest. They should be barred from meeting the organizers because those who wish to meet them are sure to lure them in the favour of their daughter which is not fair. Please parents stay out of these pageants. If your daughters made the decision to particpate then all you should really be doing is having her back and supporting her morally and emotionally and not going about everywhere preaching and talking to judges to favor your daughter. this is a PATHETIC trend, that should absolutely stop.

I Say what I Say ... 

I know its super easy to just come around for a few hours and pass a judgement on something that has been worked on for days or months perhaps (which didnt look like it though). But despite of my alliance with Hidden Treasure as a former contestant and a judge to one of the rounds for MISS NEPAL 2012, all i can really say is criticisms should be taken positively. And i know i am speaking for so many out there with what I have written and although my respect for people in hidden treasure remains unfaltered, I realy believe its time to pull up your socks, pants, shoes- whatever you have now. There are two types of critics 1. who says mean things just to hurt  and 2. who does points out flaws only so it can be corrected the next time. I have nothing but the highest respect for Miss Nepal pageant and it would be only fair if the pageant equally respected the value we give to miss Nepal by giving us  not just a good set of contestants (which you did btw, kudos for that) but also a good show. 

Finally, to end things on a lighter note

For the first time in a beauty pageant  (I can assure you it has never happened because of the fact that I am such a big fan of pageants), for the first time ever though…. I was so unattentive to whatever that was going on stage (and hence very less photos for this blog update). For the first 30 minutes I had my eyes glued on the stage but the event couldn’t hold my attention for long due to the sound defects and other afore mentioned mishaps. People started walking out and I was just chatting up with my friends most of the time. I only waited so long to see who’d win.

But four things that stood out for me in the pageant were,

Miss Nepal 2011 Malina Joshi’s speech . Very well spoken.

Malina’s gown. Oh it was just so lovely and she was looking dazzling in it. I wonder who designed it.

Miss Nepal 2010 Sadichha Shrestha’s question. She asked “Would you be okay to marry a guy who would rather stay home and look after the house and have you work and earn money instead”? now that was an interesting question which even the audience applauded. Thumbs up for a witty question like that.

And finally the crowning moment where someone so deserving as Shirsti adorned the beautiful title of MISS NEPAL 2012 was my cheering point. Here is wishing all the three girls the best of luck and hopefully I will write something on international pageants and what our representatives (winners) should look forward to in those pageants.

Thanks for reading folks please leave your comments if you have any down below. Until later, cherio :)