For 18-year-old Nira Gautam, there was a lot more to it than just being able to look good when she was persuaded to join the Safi Queen pageant. It took a lot of courage to stand up to our anti-beauty pageant culture. It involved going out there to create your own identity, being different, deviating from stereotypes.

According to the norms of pageants, Nira Gautam is 2 kg overweight. But it does seem that weight standards at the Safi Queen contests are in serious need of medical scrutiny since none of the 20 contestants were deemed fit enough to donate blood.

Blood donation was part of the gruelling training for contestants in the pageant last week where 20 young Nepali women put in 15-hour days of cat-walking, photo shoots, question answer sessions, smile analysis appointments, formal dining courses, football and even rock climbing.

At the end of it all, judges which included anti-trafficking activist Anuradha Koirala, filmmaker Nir Shah, actor Rajesh Hamal and Indian diplomat Nagma Malik chose Nira as winner. At 5'7", Nira looks stately and mature, she is quick to smile and has a no-nonsense look about her.

But in the end it was her brains that the judges seem to have been most impressed by. Asked "How can George W Bush and Saddam Hussein become in-laws?" Nira didn't hesitate with the answer: "Saddam's son has to wed Bush's daughter because it is well known that children inherit their parents' characteristics so a son of someone who is considered to be a terrorist can only be controlled by a powerful woman." Applause.

As winner, Nira now has a whole series of engagements for modelling, and will be replacing the Indian model on Safi commercials. And there are trips: she will represent Nepal either in the Miss Earth contest in the Philippines next week and the Miss University contest in China later this year.

Nira is donating her Rs 50,000 prize money to Sungava Orphanage where she is a volunteer every Monday, and the Old Age Home in Gaushala. (Astha Dahal/The Circle)s