While you can’t go back in time and defy age, a little cheating is allowed! Bengaluru-based accounts manager for a firm and mother of a nine-year-old Neerja Wadhwa Dhanrajhani, has just been crowned Mrs. India International, 2017.
The 43-year-old competed against 20 other contestants for the spot in Thailand, and is all set to represent the country in the next event taking place in Moscow.
Neerja admits she was always ambitious.
“I was one of the four women heading a BPO in the country when I started working. Because I was a woman, I felt the need to prove myself and my worth so I’ve always believed in giving my hundred per cent to everything I do. And though I was extremely career oriented, the fashion and glamour world always appealed to me,” shares the leggy lass who then went on to take a sabbatical once her daughter was born.
From being the key accounts manager at Practo to being crowned Mrs. India – how did it happen, we want to know.
“A friend told me that I have a good sense of fashion, so I decided to give this a try,” says the fashionista who credits her family for their support through the rigorous process. “Nobody ever objected to me competing in the contest and even when I won the crown, my husband and daughter Samaira were there cheering on for me,” says Neerja.
“I was working four hours before my flight took off to Thailand and when I got there, I saw that the others had hired choreographers and instructors to train them. I had done nothing and was quite intimidated at first. But then decided to put my best foot forward,” she smiles recalling. Unfazed by the fuss around her recent victory, for Neerja, it’s all about breaking the glass ceiling.
“A lot of women believe that once they have a child and take a sabbatical, there is no more career for them as they will have to start from scratch. I started from scratch and took on the corporate world and now the beauty world. Age shouldn’t be a constraint or stop us from doing anything we want to. We’re women, if we put our hearts to it, we will achieve anything we want,” she says adamantly.
