While the May Queen pageant of Secunderabad Club is well known, only a select few are aware of the one at the Rajendra Singhji Institute (RSI) at Yapral.

The May Queen pageant is one of the most popular events in this defense officers’ institute’s social calendar and the RSI was adequately decked up for it in the last week of May.

While the 10 contestants made the job tough for the judges, the gathering was in for an entertaining evening with dance performances by Bollywood actor Hrishita Bhatt and her troupe and a superb laser show.

Other than the now-traditional Indian and Western-wear rounds, the contestants showed off their talents that ranged from singing, dancing and painting to playing the drums blindfolded.

Twenty-year-old Prabhati Gogte was crowned the May Queen. She also walked away with the Miss Talented and Miss Photogenic awards while Ria Singh, 21, and Shelly Katoch, 22, were adjudged the First and Second runner’s up respectively.

This was the first pageant for Prabhati who has just graduated from Badruka College of Commerce. She had to commute for an hour every day for practice at RSI from May 15. “I stay at Kacheguda, my dad would drop me, wait for the event to get over and then take me home,” says Prabhati, who wanted to take part in the pageant after seeing the Secunderabad Club May Queen Ball pictures in the newspaper.

“I had never taken part or even attended May Queen pageants, so I was a bit apprehensive. But not about the catwalk, perhaps this was because of my Kathak training.” Prabhati also made a neat packet from the evening. She took home Rs 10,000 for the Miss Talented title, Rs 10,000 for Miss Photogenic and Rs 20,000 for the May Queen title besides gift hampers worth Rs 9,000.

For first runners up Ria, the evening was “jinxed”. “I participated last year and was first runners up; it was the same this year,” says the professional model.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Lifestyle> Fashion/Beauty / by Anisha Dhiman – DC / June 04th, 2013