"I am a student in senior year at college. My future ambition is to become a clinical physiologist. I can sing the gospel. I love R & B Music and Salsa and love to listen to Indian Music. Dancing comes naturally to me. I joined classes for contemporary dance and can do the North Indian Folk dance with gusto. I write poetry although none of my work has been published except in school magazines. I enjoy reading especially biographies and writing short stories for children. I am on the board of Thalassaenic Children, being associated with pulse polio programme and the Aids awareness programme, where I have participated in street plays and group lectures. I love hiking and travel where I am one with God's beautiful creations. I speak Hindi and English."
It is the day after the show and the reality of having won the Femina Miss India-World 2000 crown hadn’t yet sunk in for Priyanka Chopra. There simply hasn’t been time enough for that.
Like the other two winners, she is being shuttled from shoot to shoot, interview to interview. Free time is yet to come and whatever she can grab of it, she wants to spend with her family, eager to show them the gifts she has received.
For Priyanka, participating in this contest was born of the desire to experience everything she possibly can in life. So that meant not sitting back, satisfied with the laurels of being among the 26 contestants. She would practice answering questions drafted by her mother, and during rehearsals, when Mum wasn’t around, the chaperones had to fill in.
Now, being chosen as one of the best in a tough, tough competition makes her feel "on top of the world". She says, "I know that whatever you want in life, someone else wants too. You have an equal right to it and with hard work you can achieve it." Her sense of achievement and elation is now strong enough to banish any signs of exhaustion.
It was a long, hard road that began many, many months earlier.
The wheels of change were put in motion the day her parents sent in her photographs. For a girl with no modelling experience, and one who admits to being emotional and erratic, Priyanka learnt fast.
Unlike many of the contestants, Priyanka didn’t dream of being a Femina Miss India. On the one hand, she wanted to do drama and music, on the other she wanted to be a child psychologist. But winning the crown has thrown up new dreams even as it has instilled a sense of responsibility. She says, "I am looking forward to my new role because now I feel a sense of purpose." She confides she’s always had an urge to reach out to people. She’s worked with children in day care centres and in the slums where her mother does charity work for the ill and aged. She says, "Winning the crown and being a celebrity expands my reach. And I want to do something to improve the literacy rate in this country."
Closer to home.
Recently, Priyanka spent a year studying in the US. She says, "In India, we respect tradition, morals and values. In the US, it is different, their rules and values are different and individualistic. Neither culture is better and both have had a positive impact on my life."
Now, as a second year engineering student in Bareilly, she says, "It wasn’t much of a culture shock coming back home to India and settling down in Bareilly. My strong point is my adaptability, thanks to my army background. We had to move regularly and each new place required adapting. Now, it comes naturally to me."
When she returns to Bareilly, Priyanka will be welcomed with open arms. She says, "Dad told me that the Commissioner is busy organising a city gathering to welcome me back home and I feel quite strange about all this." She’ll get used to it, you tell her. Going for adventure sports like rock climbing and bungee jumping. The latter, more than once. For which, she laughs, "You’ve got to be crazy!" Little consolation for her mother.
