NEW DELHI, January 27: Shortly after a fashion show in the city on January 7, Express Newsline columnist Shefali Talwar asked fellow ramp model Annie Thomas to send her portfolio for `Face of the Week', Talwar's weekly column for Channel Y. She knew she had spotted a winner and though Annie was about to leave for the preliminary rounds of the Miss India contest, she packed her pictures along with a lovely poem that spoke of her aspirations.``I had done a number of shows with her and so had got to know her over a period of time,'' says Talwar. ``What attracted me most about Annie, however, was her good nature, her professional approach to fashion shows, and her down-to-earth attitude towards life. Despite being shy and reserved, she had a certain willingness to shed her inhibitions and ask questions.''The 22-year-old girl from Vasant Kunj (Sushmita Sen's former address) is the second `find' of Express Newsline to make it really big in the world of diamond tiaras and multi-million television audiences. First, it was the Graviera-Mr India Diwakar Pundir and now, Annie Thomas, recently crowned Miss India-World. When asked how she feels playing fairy godmother to aspiring models, Talwar laughed. ``Yes, Diwakar was my discovery,'' she clarified. ``But I never `spotted' Annie. I got to know her over a period of time, mainly during the fashion shows which we got to do together.''On the chances of this Delhi girl doing a Diana Hayden, Talwar said: ``Annie is definitely attractive. But she is not pretty in the conventional sense of the word. Her intelligence, her personality and her character are her main assets. And believe me, these qualities will take her very far in life.''Back home, mother Rachel Thomas, a public relations inspector with the Northern Railways, brother Dennis, an executive with American Express, Elizabeth Alexander, Annie's maternal grandmother, and aunt Susan Philips are eagerly awaiting the return of their favourite `Anna' from Mumbai tomorrow. Her father, K. Thomas, a retired Army colonel, has gone back home to Kottayam, Kerala.``We got to know about her achievement around 10.40 p.m. on Saturday,'' says her beaming mother. ``Anna managed to call me up only at 4 a.m.'' Adds Annie's maternal grandmother: ``The contest meant the world to her and it has made us all so proud of her.'' Brother Dennis, however, kept insisting that the success was entirely that of Annie's. ``Yes, the family's moral support does count, but she is the one who deserves all the kudos,'' he said.A sports freak from her school days (she studied at St Mary's, Nainital), Annie had set her eyes on beauty titles once she graduated to college (Queen Victoria, Agra). She started with the Miss Agra title, snapped up the Miss Taj crown, and even made it to the top of the Miss Ghungroo pageant at Maurya Sheraton last year.Incidentally, Rachel is India's only woman skydiver. Her name figures in the Limca Book of Records, for she has skydived almost 600 times. ``Annie spent a fair amount of her childhood in the lap of her granny and aunt, whom she fondly calls chhoti mummy. Actually, they're the ones who deserve all the applause because I used to be away for as many as six months at a stretch. On a few occasions, I couldn't come home for a year!'' In fact, when Annie's name was announced, Aunt Susan broke down saying: ``My li'l baby has done it!''Annie also won the Best Costume Award for a silver dress designed by another city resident, Jaspreet. And guess how much it weighed? Thirty kg! The blouse itself weighed well over 7 kg.
