BHARATI PAWASKAR
The only representative of Goa in India’s Miss TGPC Season 7, and the Varca born only child of Isidoria Vas and Jennifer D’souza, teenager Amanda Delilah Vas stands tall, literally with her 6.1” height, among the top three winners in world’s first ever online pageant. The beauty of this pageant is that there’s no bar of any sorts “ age, height, region or any such criteria and a contestant can apply anywhere from India and compete in the contest from the place of her convenience. She doesn’t have to travel places. Being safe in her own comfort zone, she can shoot the required videos, answer online questions, face interviews and upload her details widely using the popular social media platforms.
The second-year biotechnology student at Chowgule College, Amanda stumbled upon the announcement of this online pageant while surfing for a suitable platform to propagate her dream plans of planting trees and making the earth greener, purer and healthier. It was India’s Miss TGPC (IMT) beauty pageant conducted by ‘The Great Pageant Community’ (TGPC), world’s first ever online pageant and she casually thought of participating in it, just to check the possibility of sharing her green ideas with the wider world through this platform. And to her surprise, her wildest dream came true; she was shortlisted from among the 1800 odd girls who applied online. The pageant works in stages and Amanda was selected into top 51 finalists because she cleared selection round. Soon she was into top 20 as she made it to be on top of the leaderboard. Amanda’s Miss Golden Heart video was in relation to planting trees, a stride towards green goals. Her project was picked up as one of the best with a score of 18/20. In the top 10, she was TGPC’s elite panel’s choice which gave her a direct entry into top 10. She was selected into the top 6 with a remarkable score of 9.33 based on a new set of ramp walk videos. And Amanda was the first contestant to be announced as a top 3 winner of India’s Miss TGPC Season 7.
Looking back at her journey, Amanda recalls crossing every hurdle, passing every test, answering every tough question carefully with her strong willpower and consistency. Sharing her 30-day journey in July-August, Amanda agrees to have learnt a lot from this contest. “I learnt the importance of three P’s “ patience, practice and perseverance. I also learnt about discipline, goal setting and choosing the right words and gathering my thoughts to express myself, thanks to my mentors “ Darshan and Danny in Team Red.” She starred in several Instagram advertisements and also won the subtitle of Miss Beautiful Hair at India’s Miss TGPC in association with Time Machine Salon.
Conscious of her social obligations, this 18-year-old has participated in beach clean-up project by Adv Afroz Shah and cleaned Colva beach. A trained Bharatnatyam dancer from Kalanjali, Amanda has represented her school and college in basketball. A student of Vidya Vikas Academy and the Kings School, she is the favourite of her teachers at Chowgule College, Margao who wholeheartedly allowed her to plant trees in the campus when she requested for it.
“My liking is towards food biotechnology,” shares this daughter of a businessman and a philanthropist. With her supportive parents, nature lover and vegetarian Amanda sows seeds of hope in her surroundings and teaches music and dance to kids as a gesture of spreading joy and compassion. She would love to share her knowledge with children and teach them free, her recent gesture towards nature was seen when she planted trees on Independence Day with 90 volunteers who gathered on just one call.
Musically inclined Amanda has done two-year course at London School of Music and is good at basketball and throw ball. Enjoying to spend her free time in the swimming pool, she religiously nurtures her aim to represent India globally depicting a typical Indian woman and our culture phenomenally. “Making the sash of India across my body will make me feel really proud,” smiles Amanda who is determined to earn laurels for her country, India, and the countdown for which has already begun!
About the contest
After a contestant applies for IMT, a panel of jury shortlists certain number of candidates based on listed criteria. After clearing participation fees, the shortlisted contestants then receive mail regarding the rounds of the contest. The contestants need to shoot the videos like party wear, style icon wear, ethnic wear, various Q & A and certain subtitles. The contestants send these videos to the organisers on mail before deadline. Once the videos are received, they are compiled to create rounds. All this is carried online through blog, social media platforms and YouTube channel.
