Priyanka Chopra is Miss World

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, DEC. 1. In the end, it turned out the way bookies had willed it and India's Ms. Priyanka Chopra walked away with the Miss World crown on her head and a cheque for œ70,000 at a pleasantly low-profile function at the Millenium Dome here late on Thursday night.

Surprisingly, the bookies' other favourite Miss Venezuela did not even make it to the semi-final round. The two runners-up were Ms. Italy and Ms. Turkey.

India's second consecutive ``triumph'' looked very much like a family affair as last year's winner, Ms. Yukta Mookhey, handed over the crown and the Indians in the audience cheered and waved the tricolour.

Ms. Chopra became the fifth Indian to win the contest since it was started 50 years ago, but only one former Indian Miss World - Ms. Rita Faria, all poise and very vintage - was present on Thursday and looking back she said all she had were memories.

The 18-year-old, who wants to become a clinical psychologist, beat the challenge from 94 contenders around the world, though it is not clear what eventually won her the crown - the beauty or the brain. For, her answers to the two questions put to her - what she hoped to achieve through the contest and who was the person living today she admired the most.

To the first she said she would use the contest as a ``platform to influence people's thoughts and actions'' and for the second she settled for the safest option: Mother Teresa. ``I admire her from the bottom of my heart for being so passionate and kind - giving up her life to put smiles on people's faces.''

There had been cleverer and more original responses to more difficult questions earlier, and certainly brighter faces had preceded her on the stage. If this had been a cricket match, a lot of people would have been tempted to look a lot more closely at the result. For all the transparency, the judging process remained extremely opaque and known only to the charmed circle of the judges, chaired by Ms. Julia Morley, widow of Eric Morley, who founded the contest and died a few weeks before its 50th anniversary.

A sense of deja vu marked the denouement with even Ms. Chopra appearing rather blase' and there was none of those dramatic gestures that made Ms. Aishwarya Rai and Ms. Sushmita Sen look genuinely surprised.

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