Doing the unthinkable or rather the expected, is the 11-year-old Bipaswi Poudyal.A fifth grader at Wenndy House School, who represented Nepal in the 11th Little Miss World 2011 held in Antalya, Turkey, bagged the crown and the title of Miss Congeniality as well.
The pageant, which was held from October 2 to 7, had representatives from 35 countries. Nepal was represented in this international pageant for the first time.
Speaking at the Tribhuvan International Airport after a 14-hour flight, a very elated Poudyal shared that she was very happy. S
he revealed that the competition was challenging due to the language barrier but eventually even managed to make friends there. “I was closer to girls from South Africa and Kazakhstan,” added she.
“The moment they announced my name I thought about my parents and Deependra sir (Shakya), for he had provided me the platform to reach to this stage. I’m thankful to everyone involved,” revealed a wiser-than-her-age Poudyal.
Judged on the basis of talent and discipline, Poudyal left behind 39 contestants representing 35 countries to clinch the crown. Her answer to the final question, “What is your family tradition?” was “We go to all the temples, celebrate every festival and pray together. In our culture we respect everyone.”Full of praises for the little wonder who hails from Bihsalnagar, Kathmandu, Deependra Ratna Shakya, executive director of Nepalese Council and national director of Little Miss World said, “We always had high hopes from Bipaswi, and she made us proud in the international pageant. We were the proudest bunch there when her name along with country “Nepal” was announced. It was surreal.”
In a competition dominated by European kids a little Nepali girl making her mark was indeed shocking to many, revealed Rohit Shakya, the director of Nepalese Council adding, “Our aim to produce representative from Nepal in the world arena has come true.”
Reminiscing about the talent round in which Poudyal had donned traditional Nepali gunyo cholo and danced to the tunes of “Nachu Nachu Lagyo Malai…” Deependra R Shakya said, “That act did manage to get the crowd look up and notice.”
Accompanying the newly crowned Little Miss World 2011 in the trip were her parents Raju and Shakhi Poudyal. When asked about their daughter’s performance, they revealed that they were pleasantly surprised but not completely shocked.
"She’s a special kid and we were confident about her chances but it did take some time to register the enormity of the situation.”“Bipaswi’s win has made critics eat crow. We have the talent and all it takes is proper grooming and belief we can instill in our young ones,” shared Deependra R Shakya adding that such events are instrumental to promoting Nepal Tourism Year 2011.
