Miss India 2009- Rags to Riches

Neera Chopra lived through abuse, poverty and some tough choices to make her
once-unwanted girl child, Pooja Chopra, the Pantaloons Femina Miss India.

I don't know where to begin... they were terrible times. My husband was
well-placed, but the marriage had begun to sink almost as soon as it began.
Like most women do, I tried to work against all the odds .

My in-laws insisted everything would be alright if I had a son. My first
child was a daughter, and that didn't do me any good... but I couldn't walk
out. I had lost my father, my brother was in a not-so-senior position in
Bata. I didn't want to be a burden on my family and continued to live in my
marital home in Kolkata.

I looked after my mother-inlaw, who was suffering from cancer, and while
bathing her, I would tell myself she would bless me and put things right.

I don't know how I tolerated it all. The least a man can do, if he must
philander, is to not flaunt his women in his wife's face. Then began the
manhandling. I still wanted my marriage to survive. I was a pure vegetarian
and learnt to cook non-vegetarian delicacies thinking it would please him.

Then, I was pregnant again. When Pooja was eight months in my womb, my
husband brought a girl to the house and announced he would marry her. I
thought of killing myself. I hung on the slight hope that if the baby was a
boy, my marriage could be saved.

When Pooja was born a girl, for three days, nobody came to the hospital.
There was a squadron leader's wife on the opposite bed, who was kind enough
to give me baby clothes for Pooja to wear. When she was 20 days old, I had
to make a choice. I left the house with my girls ' Pooja and Shubra, who was
seven then. I haven't seen my husband since. I promised myself, even if we
had just one roti, we would share it, but together.

I began life in Mumbai with the support of my mother, brother, who was by
then married. It wasn't the ideal situation, especially when he had children
' space, money, everything was short. I began work at the Taj Colaba and got
my own place. How did I manage' Truth be told, I would put a chatai on the
floor, leave two glasses of milk and some food, and bolt the door from
outside before going to work. I would leave the key with the neighbours and
tell the kids to shout out to them when it was time to leave for school.

Their tiny hands would do homework on their own, feed themselves on days
that I worked late. My elder daughter Shubhra would make Pooja do her
corrections... This is how they grew up. At a birthday party, Pooja would
not eat her piece of cake, but pack it and bring it home to share with her
sister. When Shubhra started working, she would skip lunch and pack a
chicken sandwich that she would slip in her sister's lunchbox the next day.

I used to pray, 'God, punish me for my karma, but not my innocent little
kids. Please let me provide them the basics.' I used to struggle for shoes,
socks, uniforms. I was living in Bangur Nagar, Goregaon. Pooja would walk
four bus stops down to the St Thomas
Academy. Then, too little to cross the road, she would ask a passerby to
help her. I had to save the bus money to be able to put some milk in their
bodies.

Life began to change when I got a job for Rs 6,000 at the then Goa Penta. Mr
Chhabra, the owner, and his wife, were kind enough to provide a loan for me.
I sent my daughters to my sister's house in Pune, with my mother as support.
I spent four years working in Goa while I saved to buy a small one-bedroom
house in Pune (where the family still lives). I would work 16-18 hours a
day, not even taking weekly offs to accumulate leave and visit my daughters
three or four times a year.

Once I bought my house and found a job in Pune, life began to settle. I
worked in Hotel Blue Diamond for a year and then finally joined Mainland
China ' which changed my life. The consideration of the team and management
brought me the stability to bring them up, despite late hours and the
travelling a hotelier must do.

Shubhra got a job in Hotel Blue Diamond, being the youngest employee there
while still in college, and managed to finish her Masters in commerce and
her BBM. Today, she is married to a sweet Catholic boy who is in the
Merchant Navy and has a sweet daughter.

I continue to finish my day job and come home and take tuitions, as I have
done for all these years. I also do all my household chores myself.

Through the years, Shubhra has been my anchor and Pooja, the rock. Pooja's
tiny hands have wiped away my tears when I broke down. She has stood up for
me, when I couldn't speak for myself. Academically brilliant, she
participated in all extra-curricular activities. When she needed high heels
to model in, she did odd shows and bought them for herself.

When I saw Pooja give her speech on TV, I knew it came from her heart. I
could see the twinkle in her eye. And I thought to myself as she won 'My
God, this is my little girl.' God was trying to tell me something.

Today, I've no regrets. I believe every cloud has a silver lining. As a
mother, I've done nothing great.

'I won due to my mother's karma'

Pantaloons Femina Miss India Pooja Chopra's mother promised 'One day, this
girl will make me proud'. Pooja speaks on fulfilling that promise... When
I was 20 days old, my mother was asked to make a choice. It was either me '
a girl child, or her husband. She chose me. As she walked out she turned
around and told her husband, 'One day, this girl will make me proud'. That
day has come. Her husband went on to marry a woman who gave him two sons.
Today, as I stand here a Miss India, I don't even know if my father knows
that it is me, his daughter, who has set out to conquer the world, a crown
on my head. Our lives have not been easy, least so for my mother.
Financially, emotionally, she struggled to stay afloat, to keep her job and
yet allow us to be the best that we could be. I was given only one condition
when I started modelling ' my grades wouldn't drop.

All the girls in the pageant worked hard, but my edge was my mother's sacrifice, her karma. Today, when people call to congratulate me, it's not me they pay tribute to, but to her life and her struggle. She's the true Woman of Substance. She is my light, my mentor, my driving force. My win was merely God's way of compensating her.