Where there is a will there’s a way and this statement, the Miss India 2020 Runner-Up Manya Singh proves it in every term!
Her life from living in a Slum,in Mumbai to the Runway of Miss India Pageant, it’s been quite historic, full of struggle but worth it.
Manya has been in headlines because of her inspirational story, she is the daughter of an auto-rickshaw driver and nothing of it wavered her strength and desire to win that precious Crown.
Life History
Manya Omprakash Singh was born in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh. Manya has a younger brother, due to being less privileged she has faced a lot of discrimination during her childhood. From not being able to pay her school fees to being looked upon because of her father being an autorickshaw driver, nothing of it was easy.
Manya has further told her story saying she ran away from her home while she was 14. She came to Mumbai, to make her living and hence dare to dream. For a girl like Manya, it was a challenge to even dream to become Miss India.
She has revealed that she had to spend numerous nights without food and sleep, I have spent many nights without food and sleep. I walked for many afternoons on foot. My blood, sweat and tears became food for my soul and I dared to dream. Being the daughter of a rickshaw driver, I never had the opportunity to go to school because I had to start working in my teens.”
βAll the clothes I had were hand-me-downs. I yearned for books, but luck wasn’t in my favour. Eventually, my parents mortgaged whatever little jewellery my mother had to ensure that I paid my exam fees in order to earn a degree. My mother has suffered a lot to provide for me,β she added.
Her Miss India Pageant Journey
Manya says, after stepping in Mumbai, she didn’t know where to go, after moving out from the Station, she spotted Pizza hut and somehow managed to get a part-time job there and also a temporary living. Two days later his father asked her whereabouts, started crying and both her parents came to Mumbai, so as to support their daughter. Manya’s father made a living out of driving an auto rickshaw, put her into a good school and besides that Manya took up a part time job and she could manage earning-15,000Rs. per month. Belonging to a Patriarchal family, it was tougher for a girl to dream this big, people said; what’s the point in making a girl study this much after all she had to get married one day, but she gathered the courage and confessed her father about her dream of Miss India, her father supported and told her, keep moving you shall reach the stars!
During her graduation years, she had auditioned for more than 10 beauty pageants and people rejected her saying “You don’t look good, You don’t know English” but none of these critics stopped Manya and diminished her light.
Her family was struggling to make a living in a metro city like Mumbai, she had a tough time; also financially. After mopping the floor of the pizza hut she could manage the money for buying new clothes.
Even after all her struggles, Manya Singh braced again and tried for the Pageant in last December and as everything went online due to the harsh hit by Covid-19, she appeared for the interviews online from her 10*10 slum. People deceived her efforts and her dare to dream will as seeking attention but nothing of this stopped her.
Now, She is the Miss India 2020 Runner-Up, inspiring so many people who are less privileged that if you wish to do nothing of any sort can stop you.
Written By- Rituja Roy
Edited By- Priyanka Sukhwani