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Miss World pageant

A. Seshan, Mumbai

This is with reference to `Indian wins Miss World crown again' (Business Line, December 2). It is a measure of the acknowledgement of the importance of beauty contests that your newspaper devoted a full column and carried a large-sized photo of Ms Priyanka Chopra. It is certainly the business of business newspapers to cover such events for several reasons.

First, the readers are as much interested in statistics of a beautiful kind as they are in dry business statistics! Second, and more important, the contests are a multi-billion dollar business in the world now. They have given rise to a whole industry co mprising cosmetics, clothes, exercising equipment, gymnasia, orthodontics, and so on.

It would seem almost impossible to estimate the contribution it makes to employment, incomes and exports. One was surprised to learn that all the 95 gowns for the opening sequence were designed by one professional organisation in Mumbai! This is a great achievement considering that India is a latecomer in the world of haute couture.

Third, millions of dollars have been raised in charities through the efforts of the title winners. Fourth, for the citizen used to seeing the pictures of scoundrels, scamsters and other criminals everyday in newspapers and on TV, the pageants are a welco me relief. One only wishes you give, in future, coverage on the front page instead of relegating it to the last page.

If match-fixers can get front-page publicity, certainly the winners of beauty contests deserve better.

Despite the record win in contests (seven so far) and the increasing realisation that they have a role to play in developing an aesthetic sense, there are critics who still oppose them on the grounds they are against Indian culture.

Will these people, living in the past, follow our old ways of dressing, for example? Ancient culture is cited whenever it is convenient. The significant values of our ancient culture are tolerance, integrity, respect for elders, sacrificing personal bene fits for the sake of others, and so on. No one talks about them, except those lecturing on the Ramayana and the Mahabharata!