Miss World 2009

I am not a fan of beauty pageants as such, but yesterday while flipping through channels I caught the live telecast of Miss World 2009. And ten minutes was all I could last. By the time I started watching, they were down to the final seven. And it was the question and answer round. Hardly a minute into it and I was disappointed. I had missed my personal favourite, the swimsuit round. But I still continued watching. Here are some of the answers, given by supposedly the 'cream' of the women species.

Q: If you could bring your family to South Africa, which place would you take them to?

A: I would take them to the zoo! I enjoyed the safari, feeding the giraffe and petting the lions. It was an out of the world experience.

Dude! Not happening. Even my neighbour's kid who just learnt to speak a week back would have given a more sensible answer. Zoos are all over the world. You don't need to get your family all the way to South Africa to visit one!

Here is another one.

Q (addressed to Miss Canada): Why should you be selected Miss World?

A: Miss World should be kind, selfless and compassionate. These qualities have always been part of my upbringing. If I were to be Miss World, I would definitely try to bring about a change in the world.

Kind, selfless and compassionate! Excuse me! And the lady ended up in fourth place. Wasn't much of a surprise though, as some of the judges were former beauty queens themselves.

But the issue doesn't end here. There is this entire growing breed of girls who are highly influenced by this miss world culture. Their answer to what do you want to do in life varies from eliminating poverty to making a difference. How? They don't quite know. But that matters little to them.