City-based IT professional & mother of two wins Mrs India Queen of Hearts pageant
Neha Saini
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, December 30
A city-based IT professional and a mother of two, Harshita Mishra, has won the title of Mrs India West Zone at the Miss and Mrs India Queen Of Hearts — 2020 pageant held in Delhi recently. Mishra, who participated in a beauty pageant for the very first time, also won several titles such as Mrs Popular and Mrs Confident at the pageant. At 40, she was the oldest contestant in the category of the married women.
Sharing her experience of winning the pageant, Harshita, said it was a surprise win for her family. “My husband and kids were pleasantly surprised when I told them that I won several titles. My husband couldn’t sleep during the night of the finale event as I was in Delhi and he was here,” she said. Calling her decision to enter the beauty pageant quite random, Harshita said she never considered herself a ‘beauty queen’. “All through my life, I had been studious, mostly academically inclined. The fact that I spent a major part of my life building a career and taking care of kids never really gave me a chance to consider for something like this. But during lockdown, I got to rediscover myself by taking care of myself, my fitness and pursuing other interests. My family encouraged me to enter the competition when I told them about the competition,” said Harshita.
Preparing herself for the pageant was not a cakewalk for her. “I trained myself for hours every day, keeping a track of my fitness routine. I learnt to play flute to hone my skills for competition. I was working throughout the lockdown, helping kids with studies. It was exhausting. But it made me stronger,” she said. Her transformation, she said was more mental than physical.
“I had always seen myself as an achiever but never thought that I could associate myself with beauty. I worked as a scientist with ISRO in the beginning of my professional life and later spent years in USA as an IT professional, raising kids while my husband was serving in Kashmir. So, for me, grooming myself in terms of physical appearance and mental makeup required time that I never had for myself. With this pageant and the support of my family, I have got an important opportunity and I am happy to enjoy my success. The true meaning of beauty, she said, comes through self-acceptance. Beauty should not be superficial. It lies in being true to yourself,” she said.
