The question asked was, “What is the most important thing a mother learns?” Ankita Sheorey cleared her throat and smiled, then with extreme confidence, she said, “When a mother gives birth to a child, a child gives birth to a mother. A mother learns to love unconditionally.”

She then went on to recite a shloka about Lord Krishna and Yashodha. The audience, that was initially gob-smacked, cheered loudly. That answer won her points in the race to win one of the Miss India titles. Ankita surprised the judges not only with her knowledge, but also with her deep insight on the mother-child relationship, which is based on unconditional love.
“It has little or no bearing on how the child feels for the mother. It’s a new kind of learning, which you acquire only after you become a mother,” Ankita said.
Every time I met her during my image consultancy sessions, her answers were always deep, profound and sensitive. During our private question and answer round (a part of the training), I asked Ankita about her thoughts on female infanticide. Again her answer was quick but meaningful, as she spoke about the root cause of it being ignorance in our country.
For a girl in her early 20s, Ankita seemed to have a lot of insight about sensitive issues. “I grew up in a Buddhist monastery in Ladakh. My father was posted there, but even when he was transferred elsewhere, my mother and I continued living in the monastery. My mother was a teacher and both my parents felt that bringing me up in that environment would teach me a lot,” she said.
“This experience from the age of 5 to 13 taught me to deal with life with a calm mindset. I learnt scriptures and meditation at a young age. Therefore, I don’t approach situations with a shallow outlook, instead I first adopt a deeper understanding of it,” she said. “This inadvertently helped to make my mind stronger.”
Ankita first went to Delhi when she was 13. “I saw McDonalds and I thought I had gone abroad,” she laughed. “Then there were plenty of bad times and struggles, but my foundation kept reminding me to stay on the right path,” she said. I reminded her that she still has a whole life ahead of her and many more tests to go through. “I grew up thinking that my sensitivity was my weakness and people would take advantage of it, but now I know it is my strength. It’s easier and simpler to lead your life when you relate to and feel people’s emotions,” she said, with confidence and clarity. Ankita is participating in the Miss International contest, which will be held in China this October. “When I was competing for Miss India, I was responsible for myself. Now, this is a much bigger platform, and I am responsible for many people. A lot of people have their expectations pinned on me. They have showered me with love, and I feel I owe it to my country to win the crown,” she said, with sparkling eyes.
Ankita has started the eye donation campaign called “It’s a Beautiful World”. “We have got a lot of enquiries about eye donation after that,” she said. Bollywood personalities Akshay Khanna, Farah Khan and Karan Johar have encouraged her campaign. “Shut your eyes and all the colour goes from your world. All you see is darkness. There is nothing worse than being blind,” she said.