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Two mallu girls made a mark on yours truly two weeks back.One is a global star who will make it big & stay in the limelight for years to come.Another had her five minutes of fame & in all probabilities would fade away sooner than later.

The former was Miss Kerala 2005 , popularly known as Malayali Manka.For once the whole of Kerala was stunned to hear the Malayali manka speaking fluent Malayalam.All these years we were used to watching Fraud Mallus walking away with the crown & it became a common belief that a proper Malayali girl would never achieve this feat.Not that she was a proper mallu , but Parvathy Omanakuttan atleast spoke Malayalam the way it has to be spoken.By the time she became Miss India this year we knew she was a "beauty with brains" for her answers in the final rounds got rave reviews.The kind of hype created by the media was probably the first of its kind.Had she been crowned the Miss World I would have accused the contest for being "staged" since such was the confidence lingering around.She became the runner up which broke the hearts of many a mallus including me.To the surprise of my parents I was glued to Zee Cafe & not the usual ESPN/StarSports EPL matches on a saturday evening which raised quite a few eyebrows at home including my 86 year old granny's(I cud very well hear them murmuring).News channels started analyzing 'What went wrong'.There were no answers found & there is no hiding the fact that we all felt hard done by.The answer came next morning from Parvathi herself.She said "Judges made a mistake".Now we know the judges got it damn right.She left a bad taste in my mouth with those immature comments which is definitely not a Miss World quote.

The latter was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth.She was a promising athlete who was talented enough to secure an admission at Usha School of Athletics(run by P T Usha).Two years at the academy & Usha turned her back on this promising athlete stating the girl lacked proper technique.She was born & brought up in a hut with coconut leaves doubling up as a so called roof.Nobody would expect her late father(died last year suffering from cancer) or her mother who worked in a coir factory to teach her proper technique.When somebody tells you "You are not good enough" it hurts, but when that somebody is P T Usha it (I cant think of a proper word to describe the feeling...any suggestions??).She came back , joined another school & started running again with a 'spikes' provided by her well wishers.

Scene: All Kerala Schools Athletic Meet 100 m senior girls final.

8 finalists with 3 from the Usha school which included the event favorite & national record holder Shilpa.

12.37 seconds later V S Indulekha became the fastest girl student in Kerala.She was merely 17 years old, but there was no clinching of fists or jumping around & shouting.The shishya had just proved a point or two to her old guru.She was just smiling in the least expressive manner possible.Later on the media persons mobbed her & tried their best to provoke her to wash dirty linen on TV.

Media person- "where you proving somebody wrong?"

Indulekha - " I believe in God & he blessed me abundantly to achieve this.This is not an answer to anyone."

Indulekha never received any media training like Parvathi.Probably her mother wouldn't have watched her daughter being interviewed live on TV.P T Usha was "sporting" enough not to have congratulated or mention her name in her newspaper column while she was showering praises on others.

But at the fag end of the year yours truly needed some inspiration to start 2009 with new vigour & energy.That was provided from the most unlikeliest of sources.Believe me, she gave me goose bumps & wetted my eyes.

Bravo Indulekha. Hats OFF !!!