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Miss Singapore with roots in Kerala
Cakewalk: Colleen Pereira at the beauty pageant
This year's Miss Singapore is a Malayali having her roots at Murukkumpuzha in Thiruvananthapuram district. She is 23-year-old Colleen Pereira. Her paternal grandfather settled in Singapore more than 70 years ago. Born as a citizen of Singapore, she is the youngest of the four children of her parents, Basil Pereira and Princy. Ms. Pereira was crowned Miss Singapore in January.
Talking to The Hindu from Singapore over telephone, she said the Malayali in her felt proud on being crowned Miss Singapore, especially because it was in a land where the Chinese dominated as beauty queens. "It is time the world recognised that we Indians were well on our way to becoming mega powers, and I am not just talking about beauty contests alone — I am definitely proud that my roots belong to Kerala.''
After a higher diploma in mass communication, Ms. Pereira took to modelling as a career through the agency Elite Model Management. She is the brand ambassador for jeweller Tiffany's. Her journey to gain the Miss Singapore crown began four years ago when the Singapore-based New Paper declared her the first runner-up in the New Face 2001 competition. In 2003, she was declared first runner-up in the competition Supermodel of the World, Singapore 2003. She was the only non-Chinese girl to take part in that competition and her winning the first runner-up title created history since she was the first non-Chinese to ever win a title in the competition.
On being crowned as Miss Singapore this year, she represented Singapore for the Asia-Pacific International 2005 and bagged the sixth position. ``Being a Malayali only means that I was brought up in a way that I know my parents will support me no matter what happens.''
Ignatius Pereira
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Life
Bangalore
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