Indian Embassy and B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation organized the 7th edition of VOICES on, a B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation initiative held at Nepal-Bharat Library, Nepal Airlines Building.

 The seventh edition of Voices featured Miss Nepal World 2013 Ishani Shrestha who shared about her journey to the coveted beauty pageant Miss Nepal, her experiences of clinching to the top five of Miss World competition, her life with and without the crown of Miss Nepal, the responsibilities she has been undertaking as the reigning Miss Nepal and the inspirations she has earned in life.

“My crown will be passed on to a new deserving Miss Nepal in approximately three months from now. I am more than ready to welcome a new episode of my life after then,” shared Ishani and added how becoming a Miss Nepal has always been a dream to her ever since her childhood.

She added, “I often differ with people when they assume that becoming a Miss Nepal is just about having a pretty face and a plastic body. People keep asking me how it feels to be the most beautiful lady of Nepal, to which, I question them if they really think that I am the most physically beautiful woman they have seen in Nepal.”

Ishani who earned the prestigious “Beauty with Purpose” in the Miss World 2013 pageant elaborated, “Earning this title in itself was more than winning the crown of the Miss World for me. To be recognized as the most beautiful person with one’s work, heart and the soul is the biggest compliment one could ever get.”

Ishani, who is a medical student of dentistry further shared about her well-received initiative “Project Smile”.  “I went to live in Jumla district of Nepal to spread the awareness of something as simple as brushing your teeth daily. This project helped me understand how in places like Jumla and other parts of Nepal, people live a very difficult life. Something as common as brushing your teeth is a completely unknown factor,” shared Ishani.

Adding on to her experience of representing Nepal in the Miss World pageant she said, “Among 127 extremely talented and beautiful contenders from all around the world, I was not Ishani Shrestha there, I was Nepal for them. That is my achievement.”

She concluded inspirationally, “If you have dreams chase it, do what best you can do from your end, do not wait for somebody else to join the league for you. If you will chase your dreams, in the most uncommon and unexpected time of your life, you will realize that you earned your dream.”

According to the press release of Indian Embassy, the event concluded with Ishani interacting with the audience.