For the first time, the organizers have also made it possible for the public to vote for each contestant. Public can vote by typing FHMN (SPACE) and contestants’ name and number to 3626.
REETU SHAKYA, 23 (vital stats: 36-29-36, height: 5’ 9)Academic: Final year, Bachelor in Social Work
Previous achievements: Second runner-up at the World Miss University Nepal 2009.
Interests: I love helping the vulnerable people, especially children.
A little about me: I’m extrovert and optimistic person. Because I prefer to see a glass half full, it motivates me to strive for more and give my 100 percent in everything I do.
My interest in social work led me to visit the slums in Chennai to help people there, to Sunsari in east Nepal for flood relief campaign, etc.
I believe beauty pageant is not just about the external beauty. For me, it’s a platform that allows me to look and feel beautiful both physically and mentally.
In a country like Nepal where women are still regarded less competent in comparison to men, such a pageant is a must because they empower women and provide opportunities.
I believe I have what it takes to be a Miss Nepal this year because I’m not just confident but very talented too.
Optimism, zeal, enthusiasm and poise further push me to be more hopeful in winning this crown.
ASHIYA BANU, 22 (Vital Stats : 31-25-31, Height : 5’ 6)Academic: B.A. 1st year
Interest: Traveling
Motto: Encourage everyone to work hard for those who do can easily earn success
Favorite movie: Titanic
Favorite one liner: Time has a great value, so never neglect time
A little about me: Professionally, I have been an airhostess for Buddha Airline past few months. I believe in simple living and high thinking. I always try to make good use of opportunities and look forward to work towards empowering the women of Nepal.
Beauty contests are not just about the flesh-showing as it was proclaimed by few. It’s about the soul. Beauty pageant feeds one with optimism and confidence to face everything that comes across us. And I must say this that none of us are exploited or forced to do anything that we are not comfortable with.
I’m confident, smart, updated, beautiful, honest and hard working. So, I think I will win the title this year.
HUNNY MANANDHAR, 18 (Vital Stats : 32-28-27, Height : 5’ 4)Academics: +2
Interests: Interior designing and fashion and textile designing
Aim: To be a successful woman
Favorite book: Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Favorite movie: He Was Cool
Favorite one liner: Thousand miles of journey begins with a single step
A little about me: I just finished my Intermediate in Science will soon start my undergraduate degree in computer engineering. I would like to think of myself as a very down to earth person.
If beauty is pursued with a right approach, there are no harms. Such pageants help women explore more to different avenues and exhibit their talents they have within. We all have freedom to speech and expression. Let us do what we want to.
Tough to say as we all are equally competent this time, I think I am worthy of the crown because I am passionate about my work, helpful, emotional and daring and I talk sensibly. And if I win, I will work efficiently to eradicate violence to women.
PRATIVA DHAKAL, 21 (Vital Stats : 36-28-38, Height : 5’ 4)Academic: Final year student of law at Kathmandu School of Law
Interests: Traveling and traveling more
Aim: A competent lawyer
Favorite one liner: Rome was not built in a day
A little about me: I prefer to live a simple life but I think I am very ambitious. And I I love to read books on philosophies.
This is my first beauty pageant. For the past three years, I was waiting for this moment.
Beauty pageant, I believe is a medium to know yourself better and enhance your personality. It pushes you to love yourself more and love others both by their outer appearance and inner qualities.
In New Nepal, each individual has a right to question on anything there are not comfortable of. But that does not mean one can impose his/her ideologies and ideas upon someone else.
Keep your opinion to yourself if you think that such pageants exploit women.
I think I will deserve to win this year’s Miss Nepal because I am good at leadership. I am good at visioning and I am intellectual.
PUNAM THAPALIYA, 22 (Height: 5’ 4”)Weight: 48 Kgs
Academics: B Sc Nursing 4th Year
Favorite one liner: Hard work is the key to success
Hobbies: Traveling, singing and dancing
Aim: To become a successful woman and professional nurse
Previous achievements: Has worked as a model for Asian Paints, Global Bank and Dhara oil. Has done two music videos already.
A little about her: She says she is confident, beautiful, and talented, and she cares about everyone. Beauty pageant for her is an opportunity to explore her inner beauty, and she makes it clear that these pageants make women more professional and confident.
The event’s expertise takes good care of them and feeds them with optimism.
If not her, who will become Miss Nepal 2009: Richa Thapa
KALPANA PATHAK, 20 (Height: 5’ 5”)Weight: 47 Kgs
Academics: BBS 2nd Year
Aim: To open an organization to help those who are physically disabled or are needy.
Work experience: Working as a teacher for the past two years at one organization that has been working for the welfare of women and children.
Her takes on beauty pageants: Don’t just judge us by how we look. Don’t calculate us by our vital stats.
Please don’t think that beauty pageants are not worth valuing.
These pageants transform us overnight. It’s sad to see some people going against this pageant.
I’m proud to be one of the contestants. With confidence and intelligence I have in abundance, I can see myself becoming the next Miss Nepal and working dutifully to eradicate various social evils.
SHOVA DANGOL, 21 (Height: 5’ 5”)
Weight: 53 Kgs
Academics: MBBS 3rd Year student
Aim: To become a surgeon
Favorite one liner: Future is power, achieve it.
A little about her: She believes that she is hard working, she is high on ambitions, optimistic.
About beauty pageants: Beauty pageants help me understand myself better, give me an idea to understand what I’m capable of.
These pageants help girls like me know the world better, and they expand our horizons.
Like many others vying for this competition, I’m also hopeful that the qualities I have within will take me to the crown.
LINKA SHAKYA, 22 (Height: 5’ 4”)Weight: 55 Kgs
Academics: Student of fashion designing at INIFD
Motto: Believe in working hard
Aim: To become an A-class fashion designer
Beauty pageant for me is: Enhancing what I already have in better ways.
It’s not just a competition of flesh and poise, it’s a competition of attitude, personality, and it directs me to better understanding of life.
It makes me a completely different person and opens new doors to success.
ZENISHA MOKTAN, 20 (Height: 5’ 6”)Weight: 56 Kgs
Academics: Undergrad student, WLC Nepal
Hobbies: Swimming, collecting Nepali coins, playing volleyball and tennis
Interests: Bike and car racing
Favorite book: The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari
Favorite one liner: Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
Motto: Be the reflection of what you want to see in the world
Aim: To bring international brands to Nepal. I want to see Nepal as a shopping destination for the world.
A little about her: After winning Miss Tamang beauty pageant two years ago, Moktan stepped into the media world of Nepal, did a few music videos, did a TV serial for Kantipur Television and appeared in paper ads. Recently, she did a brief role in the movie “Mero Euta Saathi Chha.” She hopes to stay connected to the limelight and showbiz until people appreciate her work. Also, she was the vice president of Nepal Tamang Women’s Association. During her tenure, she participated in various programs of Tamang community.
As a child, she grew up watching and enjoying beauty pageants. Participating in various pageants have helped her fulfill her dream and also transformed her into a better woman. Having participated in Miss Nepal last year, too, she was disheartened when protestors halted the pageant for they thought that such pageants exploit women. She is back again this year to prove this that Miss Nepal has only had positive impacts on her life. She believes she is honest, genuine and she takes utmost care of her character and discipline. Because she sees herself as a youth icon, she hopes to win this competition.
ASHMITA AGRAWAL, 19 (Height: 5’ 6”)Weight: 57 Kgs
Academics: +2 from Ace Higher Secondary School
Motto: Believe in the best of everything until the worst is proven
Aim: To become an airhostess
A little about her: She likes to be known as someone who is highly attractive. Those who are beautiful, first and foremost, are polished better as they participate in beauty pageants, she says.
She further believes that beauty contests like Miss Nepal lead women to becoming independent and confident personalities.
AAYUSHA KARKI, 19 (Height: 5’ 6”)Weight: 51 Kgs
Academics: +2
Motto: To set desired goals in a positive manner
Aim: Fulfilling all my desires with utmost satisfaction
Best Book: Twilight
Best Movie: Apocylypto
Previous achievements: Miss Teen Nepal 2007 and Miss World University Nepal 2007
A little about her: She likes to call herself a regular teenager who lives like any other teenager: with lots of dreams and ambitions to achieve in life.
She believes that the Miss Nepal pageant brings a better version of a participant, who would otherwise have lived quietly within herself. Rich with confidence, poise and loyalty, she is positive of clinching the crown. If she wins, she will prioritize on raising issues about the traffic mismanagement in Kathamndu.
RICHA THAPA, 23 (Height: 5’ 4”)Weight: 52 Kgs
Academics: BBA Graduate
Hobbies: Dancing, singing, acting, writing, reading, watching movies
Interests: Traveling and grooming myself for consistent artistic and professional growth
Best book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Best movie: Pursuit of Happiness
Motto: “Life doesn’t provide warranties and guarantees. It only provides opportunities and possibilities for those who dare to make the best out of it.”
Aim: Currently, I’m working at Unilever Nepal Limited as a brand officer for family and health brands. In future, I aspire to be an entrepreneur and contribute socially as well as economically for the welfare of my country and its people.
Previous achievements: Participated in Miss Teen Nepal 2003 and Miss Tourism Queen International 2009. Received the “Most Outstanding Student” award in VOW Top 10 College Women competition in 2007.
Work experience: Worked as a volunteer for various social organizations like CWIN (Balika), SAATHI (Nepalgunj) and Maiti Nepal (Teresa Academy).
A little about her: In her own words she is confident, compassionate, socially aware, professional, diligent, and most important of all, a good human being.
Her takes on beauty pageant: Beauty pageants like Miss Nepal are prestigious platforms where girls with a perfect combination of beauty, intelligence and positivism get to groom themselves; and if crowned, they get to represent their country as its worthy ambassadors in the international arenas and also prove to be pivotal elements in the nationwide social welfare programs as youth icons.
Nepal is going through political roller coasters for quite a while now. Controversies are inevitable in a young democratic country like ours but I feltquite disheartened the way bad news unfolded for a pageant of such grandeur in the past years. I hope from this year around, protestors change their stance, create a win-win situation by helping to justify the event through positive criticism rather than contriving a stalemate through baseless cynicism.
I am the next Miss Nepal because: A Miss Nepal should be a woman of substance, a woman with compassion, conviction, character, charisma, and commitment. She should be socially aware and empowered. I believe I’ve been groomed aptly for these traits. And I have a strong faith in my confidence.
Padmini Jha, 22 (Height: 5’ 6”)Academics: Bachelor in arts at Campion College
Hobbies: Writing poems, music, and sketching
Best Movie: Titanic, and Darpanchhaya
Favorite one liner: Winners never quit, quitters never win
Aim: To be a successful person
A little about herself: Currently, she is working for Nepal One Channel as a VJ. Apart from being an active media person, she also is a brilliant student. She was awarded with the Best Student title after her graduation. This month, she hit the cover page of Wave Magazine. In her words, she is an optimistic, disciplined and determined person. And she believes these qualities are the key to success. She also has volunteered for Bal Chetana Samuha Organization in Rajbiraj.
For her, a pageant like Miss Nepal empowers women and helps them to sharpen their skills. The controversies and protests related to Miss Nepal are just misunderstanding and it is just highlighted for no good purpose, she says.
Kunchhang Moktan Tamang, 20 (Height: 5’ 6”)Academics: Bachelors 2nd year
Interest: To learn swimming
Best Book: A Girl with the Pearl Earring
Favorite one liner: I’m hot but you’re not.
Aim: Psychologist
A little about herself: Her modeling career started at the age of 16 with the music video ‘Jhaljhali Aankhama’. She aims to be into modeling until she is tired with the limelight. Previously, she participated in pageants such as Miss Teen Nepal 2006 and Miss Tourism 2007. In the latter, she clinched the title.
For her, a beauty pageant is to know herself and enhance the lady within her, to walk tall and talk confidently, possessing the right attitude. If she happens to win Miss Nepal, she says she is surely going to work to standardize the living conditions of street children and orphans.
Akriti Shrestha, 21 (Height: 5’ 5”)Academics: Bachelors in Commerce
Interest: Music, traveling, reading, sketching, watching good movies
Best Movies: City of Angels, P.S. I Love You, G.I Joe, There’s Something About Mary
Favorite one liner: Be calm!
Aim: Business Entrepreneur
A little about herself: Confident and cheerful, Akriti believes that each and every person or event has something to teach. For her, social activities necessarily don’t mean visiting certain places and helping people out there. And she makes it a point that whenever a person is helpful, she does it in the best possible way.
Nepal is a democratic country. Therefore, she believes that the Miss Nepal organizers have the right to hold beauty pageants and the participants have the equal right to participate. Besides providing girls with the golden opportunities, she also believes that Miss Nepal is a platform for girls to explore their potentials and calibers, and also to learn different facets of life.
Pranuptee Thapa, 20 (Height:5’ 4.5”)Academics: Certified Accountant Technician (CAT), undergoing ACCA
Interests: Making friends, music, traveling, dancing, singing
Best books: Muna Madan, Harry Potter, A Walk to Remember
One liner: Life is a learning process.
Motto: Making mistakes and learning from them will lead you to your destiny.
Aim: To be a business tycoon
A little about herself: In her words, she is a fun loving person. Focus and dedication are the key elements for the success for this lady, who feels that she is compatible and optimistic. She believes in herself and her confidence. And she is in support of beauty pageants like Miss Nepal as she feels that there is both beauty and brain involved in such events.
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