Narvini Dery

Narvini Dery Ravishangar
Deltager i Miss Universe Denmark 2019
Placering/Titel: Top 15 & vinder af Best Charity Ambassador delkonkurrencen.

Narvini Dery Ravishangar
Contestant of Miss Universe Denmark 2019
Placement/Titel: Top 15 & winner of Best Charity Ambassador award.

Firstly, I want to thank the entire universe, for somehow making this dream come true! Yes, when I say Dream it was truly a dream, which started in my childhood ages in India where I lived. My very first memory of the beauty pageant world was introduced to me when Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai won Miss Universe and Miss World pageants in the same year 1994.  From then it was a dream, to be a participant at a beauty pageant, but somehow as I grew older, the dream felt distanced. Society, norms, cultures and many other factors made a lot of impact on my thoughts and misinterpretations to think it wasn’t possible. Additionally, because I was an immigrant to Denmark who later became a Danish citizen, it felt like some unreachable reality. Until I got the message from my online model agency saying that I should audition for the Miss Universe Denmark competition. I was super excited and happy but still wondering if they would select me, because I thought the pageant was only for Native Danish girls, and most importantly tall girls.  All my prejudices, shattered, when I went for the audition and met the judges & mentors and learned more about the Miss universe Denmark Pageant. There were a lot of worries, before I went in, but came out fully confident and that is what the competition or I would rather call it the journey, made to me. It seriously made me a much more confident person, because contrary to the universal prejudices, the pageant targets that “beauty come in all heights, colors and types “. It was not only said in words but put in to action, and was what I felt through the journey of Miss Universe competition. I evolved as a person through this journey, each boot camp thought me so much in person. Being together with very different candidates from all over Denmark for the boot camps more than being candidates we learned to be friends, helpful, thoughtful and most importantly humans and that’s where beauty lays in. In every sector, we see competition as an important way of evaluation such as the Education system and the exams which evaluate the competence of a student. It is a common social structure and in this, is how a beauty pageant also works in my opinion. Like schools which give every student a learning from their journey, knowingly and unknowingly they will get to know about the strength, but also a weakness, which will help them better themselves in life. That is exactly how Miss universe journey also worked for me. Taught me more on to be punctual, dedicative, strong, willing, becoming confident in own skin, but also flattering with make-up. Walking in with inner elegance, without support, but also learning the model catwalk on a highest professional level with the support of high heels. It takes all these elements to be shining on a stage.  Even though I had plenty of stage experience before as an actor, it was different to be on a Miss Universe stage, where you put out yourself on a different level. It needed a lot of courage, which was taught to us, by the mentors, in every session of boot camp.

In addition to being judged on appearance, the competition contains challenges in every way, we are judged on personality, ambition, intelligence, communications skills and commitment to charity work. The overall impression is looked at and judged throughout the journey. And here the most important part of the full journey was undoubtedly the charity work for me. I couldn’t be greater for the award I won because I was truly desirable for that, because charity work plays such an important role in my life both as an M.sc student of social science in social work, but also personally where I feel social work is what keeps our entire universal society together. Here the Miss Universe Competition gave every candidate a huge platform to voice out and do charity work. I took this opportunity and made my charity project about depression, because of personal experience and the social aspect of it is a rising problem that needs more public awareness. Because I believe in embracing humanity and helping the vulnerable regardless of the differences because divided, we fall united we rise. Being acknowledged for my thoughts through my charity project about depression and awarded as the best charity ambassador, gave me a huge respect and motivation to do more in my personal life. This lead me to do my Master thesis research on Depression and how to develop Social help for people with depression. Thanks, to the Miss Universe journey, which motivated me in it.

Finally, I would say, like schools, it is not all good, to become a good student, we all need to work hard, we may need to do homework’s that’s not the fun part of it, but that’s also an important part of the journey, which leads us to achieve what we desire.  I struggled in many ways like, traveling to Copenhagen from Aalborg, find a place to stay, fighting my shyness and walking with bikini on stage, and more, but every struggle comes with greater learning and a blessing at the end of it, when hard work is done correctly.

So, for those who want to participate in Miss Denmark, think of this, as a school where you should be ready to learn and unlearn to truly achieve what you desire.

Love, Narvini Dery

Vidste du at den første Mr.World konkurrence blev vundet af belgieren Tom Nuyens i 1996?