Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (PMD)

Mangaluru, Jan 31: Carol Menezes, the 21-year-old beauty from Bondel, has won the Miss Queen Karnataka title in the 15th Miss South India contest presented by Manappuram Finance Ltd, and directed by Ajit Ravi and wife Jabitha, owners of Pegasus Group that co-organised the contest. The contest was organised on Friday, January 27, at Camelot Convention Centre, Alleppey, Kerala.

Apart from 'Miss Queen Karnataka', Carol won 'Miss Beautiful Face' and 'Miss Beautiful Smile' titles. A student of Nitte University, Mangaluru, Carol is in her final year of graduation and is placed with a popular multinational corporation. She had earlier participated in the 'Miss Mangalore' contest and been titled 'Miss Congeniality'.

Speaking to daijiworld over the phone, an elated Carol described her journey. "I was part of Miss Mangalore contest. My friends then asked me to try for Miss South India. Auditions were held in Bengaluru. It was on a weekend, so I went at night and came back the next morning, without allowing it to impede my academic life. Thankfully, I managed to score excellent marks in exam."

Daughter of Maxim and Clotilda (nee Pinto) Menezes, Carol credits her success to her very supportive family. "All of them have been super supportive whenever I wanted to do something new. In fact, my mom flew down to Alleppey all the way from Dubai for the contest. My dad came as well. My sister came from Mangaluru and helped me with the dressing and everything. Without her help that day, I would not have been able to make it. That kind of support is really needed!

Her mother Clotilda works as an accounts supervisor at Emirates Airlines, Dubai. Her sister Sherol is an engineer at Infosys.

Carol's inspiration to explore various avenues has been her cousin who has his roots in Mangalore and is a manager with the renowned Raghu Dixit Project. "He has chased so many dreams. He's doing what he loves, and is doing it well. He is an event mangaement, product developer and is also great at cooking," she said, about her cousin who also inspired her to try cooking.

"I don't have a role model in general, but try to emulate different qualities in different people. As a fashion designer Manish Malhotra's work has inspired me. He has a unique way of presenting his art."

Art-lover Carol said, "I was engaged in fashion designing as a kid. I put pieces of cloth together to make fancy dress, learnt stitching and also made pouches."

Carol is pursuing her final semester at Nitte, Mangaluru and has 3 months more to complete graduation, and is 'certainly' excited to explore a professional life. When asked about fashion industry and engineering being complements to each other, Carol said, "Fashion Design and Engineering also interlinked through Fashion Technology, we see that with Amazon. Engineering is one field will never go a waste. All that's needed is channelising it in the right direction. Modelling also helps improve personality and confidence."

Apart from modelling, Carol is into elocution and was a member of the Toastmasters. "I will be working and trying out different fields to understand my interest. Speaking - articulation of thoughts - is a part of every profession," she said, when asked about her interests.

Experience at Miss South India contest

"The contest was professionally organised. The accomodation was good and hospitality, excellet. Ajit Ravi and his wife Jabitha, the owners of Pegasus group organised the event. It was a warm experience with them around. Jabitha was friendly and apporachable. I was very apprehensive before I reached there and didn't know what was ahead of me or how were the people. As opposed to popular undertanding , the co-contestants were not nasty or spiteful but were congenial and nice. Contestants from every other state mingled beautifully. The apprehensions I had were dispelled, and  won't deter me from going to another pagent," said an enthusiastic Carol.

"We stayed in beau monde the Fern, cochin for a week, thorugh the training and the contest. Ten marks were assigned for the grooming session, where we had professionals to train us for catwalk, personality development and choreography. Professionals judged the event. For instance, a dentist was called to judge beautiful face based on jaw structure, teeth alignment, among other criterias. For beatiful hair title, we had a hair salon professional, dermatologist Dr Asha biju judged the skin.

It was fun and a huge learning experience. They took us on a cruise one evening, to destress." she told daijiworld.

The 'Queen of Karnataka' will now go for Queen of India contest by Pegasus. 

Her message to youngsters: "You can even think of cooking and take that up as a profession. Look forward to opportunities and grab them as they come. 'If I was...then I would' kind of attitude won't take you anywhere. Put in efforts to achieve your dream. Pursue your own dream, not something that someone has told you to do.

"Creative fields interest me. Very few people are becoming dancers, singers, so it would be nice to see more people in these fields too. Coding can be creative, if you see it that way."

"Watch out for all those opportunities and grab them. As this contest was in Bengaluru, I put in that added effort to go there for auditions. The effort is imperative," she stressed.

"Mangaluru does not lack leadership qualitites, but motivation, maybe. Mangaluru does not have many opportunities like in the metros," she added.

Her message to readers is simple: 'Follow dreams, and be interested in what you are doing, as you will be doing it for the rest of your life. Explore your interests.'

Contestants and the contest

The title winner, Bavithra B from Tamil Nadu took home a reward of Rs 1 lac and was crowned by previous year's winner Meera Mitun. Reshma R K Nambiar from Calicut and Varna Sampath from Karnataka were the first and second runners up and were awarded 60,000 rupee gifted by Wow Factor and Rs 40,000 by Manappuram Finance Ltd respectively. MD and CEO of Manappuram Finance Ltd V P Nandakumar and Sushama Nandakumar crowned the runners up. The crowns adorning the winners were gifted by Parakkat Jewellers.

Eighteen beauties from 5 south Indian states participated in this event. Besides Carol Menesez, Varna Sampath and Nishitha Shrinath from Karnataka brought laurels to the state.

Reshma Nambiar (Kochi), Samantha Jose (Trichur), Anu Treesa (Kottayam), Reshma R K Nambiar (Calicut) Abhirami V Iyer (Tamil Nadu), Akila Narayan (Tamil Nadu), Bavithra B (Tamil Nadu), Carol Menezes (Karnataka), Demina Rao (Karnataka), Madhuri Jain (Tamil Nadu), Nishitha Shrinath (Karnataka), Pratheeksha Ravi (Tamil Nadu), Shabnam Ali (Karnataka), Slloka Saincherr (Telangana), Suja Suriya Nila (Tamil Nadu), Sunaina Allamraju (Andhra Pradesh), Shushmitha (Karnataka), Varna Sampath (Karnataka) were the 18 contestants who competed for the title.

The competition which was conducted by Pegasus took place in 3 rounds - Designer saree, red cocktail and black gown. In the grand finale, contestants walked the ramp for music composed by DJ Harvey Steve.

The grooming for this competition was from Saturday, January 21 in Beaumonde the Fern, Cochin.

The girls were groomed by an panel of expert fashion choreographers and trainers comprising Valentina Ravi (Mrs India-Asia International), fashion choreographer Arun Ratna, yoga trainer Sudhakshina Thampi , skin expert Dr Asha Biju, personality trainer Ganga Mohan, personality trainer Jithesh , dentist Dr Eldho Koshi, chief plastic surgeon Dr Karthik Ram.

Model and actor Sanjay Kumar Asrani, model, actress and writer Vanisree Bhatt, model and actor Rajeev Pillai, managing editor of Kanyaka - Toshma Biju, model and actor Kaushal Manda resided in the judges panel in this competition. The subtitles were also judged by a panel of experts.