EMN
Dimapur, September 15
In a tête-à-tête with Yupangnenla Longkumer, the not-so-girly Beauty Queen talks about the ‘problems’ she had with skirts, the initial journey toward modelling, and now her pursuit as a law student and her dreams in the fashion & beauty industry.
Victoria’s Secret models played football for an advert early this year but meet this 20-year-old beauty queen Imlibenla Wati who plays football and beats the drums for real.
This 5’8 inches tall damsel will be now contesting for Miss India Elite 2015–a beauty contest for a cause, focussed on Women Empowerment. Out of 800 plus contestants from entire northeast India, only three were chosen where Aben was also one of them.
Moreover, the three winners of Miss India Elite will compete at different international beauty pageants - Miss Supermodel International, Miss Global and Miss World Beauty.
Even as a little girl, Aben wasn’t a dainty, girly person. She had problems with wearing skirt to school and whenever any boy in her class taunted her, she never sat in a corner and cried but stood for herself and for sure a clenched fist swinging in action.
However, in 2012 when she won the Miss Nagaland crown, things started to change bit by bit in her life. Eventually, she started to love the newly found interest in glitz and glamour fashion world.
“Alongside my studies, having being exposed to so many interesting opportunities since I was young, I have learnt to love modelling and therefore glamour world is what I am associated with too. So every once in a while I walk the ramp for different designers and shows. Today this has cultivated into something I would say ‘passion.’
Having said that I am determined and sure that this would not be a journey I will be pursuing permanently. May be two or three years of modelling and I am done,” she said.
Besides her modelling career, she is a law student of NEF Law College in Guwahati. Mention may be made that during her high school, she was very much active in school academic activities. To name a few, she represented Nagaland in National Level Science Exhibition and she was awarded student of the year when she was in the 12th standard.
In a tête-à-tête with the Eastern Mirror, the tomboyish beauty queen shares her enthusiasms and experiences she has learned in life.
Eastern Mirror (EM): What was your reaction when you came to know that you were selected for Miss India Elite contest?
Imlibenla Wati (IW): It is quoted, “Aim for the moon so that even if you fail you’ll end up in the stars”. When our efforts are not in vain and when we get a positive feedback on what we have tried to grasp. We obviously feel elated. It was quite a shocking and a happy moment; most importantly to experience God’s blessings time and again.
EM: How did you get into modelling? Was it your childhood aspiration always to walk the ramp?
IW: Honestly, modelling was not one of my fortes till a boisterous half of my high school (laughs) ... and suddenly my first winning title and then you realize that life brings to us chances and opportunities. I thereafter discovered my attributes towards modelling and hence it has been ‘one’ of my passions ever since.
EM: Your profession and your leisure pursuits are so contrasting. What is your say on that? I mean how do you handle football, drums and walking the ramp?
IW: I believe that one should be Jack-of-all-trades in the present scenario of our generation. When we are passionate about the things you do everything falls in place like a jig-saw puzzle. I don’t have to handle, it’s just a flow I embrace. I am a sportswoman in the field, I go with the beat of the drums and when I walk the ramp I try to own the stage.
EM: Your favourite football club?
IW: Barcelona (Neymar! Neymar!)
EM: What was your childhood like? Have you ever fought with boys during school days?
IW: My mom still reminds me how I refused to go to school with skirts. So that’s a little snap shot of my childhood. Of course, I fought with almost all the boys in my high school. Like I have mentioned before I was a rock-n-roll teenager and yeah it really amazes others and even me that I have taken up modelling as one of my passion.
EM: How do you keep yourself fit?
IW: I munch in lots of junks (laughs) ...well, it’s not wholly true but I don’t compromise myself with food but I do kick boxing and I go to gym too.
EM: Define your personal style?
IW: I am spontaneous, frank, stubborn and walk-the-talk person and those personalities pretty much reflect on what I wear, do or say. That’s my style.
EM: What do you find the most challenging part about working in the fashion industry?
IW: This is quite an expensive question to answer because we all know what goes around in fashion industry, which is an open truth. For me I take it as a challenge of keeping up myself in integrity the most important and hence respect follow suit.
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EM: Lately, there were rumours that you were on the edge of breaking down. Did it affect you in any way?
IW: Rumours are meant to break us. I get to hear different story every day, that at times is hilarious, but at the end of the day, it’s just a rumour. I am quite used to it now. I will just end with this ‘God’s favour outweighs all opposition”
EM: What is your strength?
IW: My strength is learning from my weakness and becoming a stronger person.
EM: Should beauty queens involve in politics or stay out of it? What is your say on people’s opinion when you actively involved in the last general election?
IW: A queen takes a stroll to the crown but a beauty queen too in her purest form, i.e., a human have been given the virtuous right to vote someone to the crown. There lies the difference. Therefore, in the true sense of the word either way somehow both queens should be playing a part in politics. Sense of belonging is as important as knowing oneself.
Is it wrong for someone to stand for what he or she believes is right? Last election I supported a campaign, which I felt, was right. All I did was exercise my rights. When you see a candidate enthusiastic about helping with a zealous approach and a charismatic personality of course, I would want to vote for him.
Our constituency, one of the smallest in India, with almost a decade being won by the same candidate I thought a change would be right for development in all senses and I decided to choose with the right conscience and analytic judgement hoping for a fresh and better change. That is all I did. For me, it’s either black or white. But that’s just me.
EM: What is your opinion on same-sex relationship?
IW: It is a subject where we cannot have sides because whether we are against it or for it, at the end it all comes to the individuals’ choice. We cannot impose norms and values on people who have the complete right over their freedom of will.
