What Would You Do to Save the World?: Confessions of a Could-have-been Beauty Queen by Ira Trivedi (2006-06-01) Paperback

by Ira Trivedi

Riya has always had a secret ambition winning the coveted Miss Indian Beauty crown. It s Riya s chance to turn fantasy into reality. The Miss Indian Beauty contest could well be her ticket to instant fame and success. After all, she s good-looking, intelligent, confident and, most importantly, tall how difficult could it be? But Riya is in for a dose of reality, as she soon finds herself in the company of twenty-two gorgeous girls, under house arrest in a five-star hotel in Mumbai for a rigorous training session that will test them all to their limits. With each girl s eyes set on the crown, the mood is emotionally charged and the atmosphere intense, exhilarating, vicious and explosive all at once. What Would You Do to Save the World? is a delightfully entertaining first novel which reveals the dust behind the diamonds, the tears behind the plastic smiles, and dishes the dirt on what really goes on behind the scenes of a beauty pageant.

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Ira Trivedi is the bestselling author of What Would You Do to Save the World? (2006), The Great Indian Love Story (2009) and There Is No Love on Wall Street (2011). Her latest book and first work of non-fiction is India in Love: Marriage and Sexuality in the 21st century, a landmark book on India's new social revolution in marriage and sexuality.

Ira's books have been published by leading publishers like Penguin and Aleph and have been translated into several languages including Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam and Greek.

Ira contributes to a wide variety of publications including Foreign Affairs, Hindustan Times Brunch, Forbes, Outlook, Daily News & Analysis (DNA), The Asian Age, the Telegraph (India) amongst many others.

She is regularly invited to speak to students, youth groups and corporates across the country.

Ira Trivedi has lived all over the world: in four countries, nine cities and three continents. She graduated from Wellesley College, Massachusetts, USA with a BA in economics from and gained her MBA from Columbia Business School, where she won the prestigious Feldberg Fellowship.

In addition to her career as a writer, Ira is also a certified teacher of yoga. She lives in New Delhi, India, with her family.

Reviews

[Mehvish Irshad · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book on a plane ride because I had nothing better to do and that is probably the only reason I finished it at all. It reads like a reality tv show. You would at first enjoy reading a behind the scene view of the beauty pageant world and realize that yes it's not all as glamorous, classy and sophisticated as it seems on the outside, and then just get tired of the narrative.
The author appears kind of like a very sore loser who wrote this book to console herself by appearing to the rest of the world like someone who was too smart to be in this competition to begin with and even though she was a part of it, was all the while regretting it or ashamed of it or just above it all.
I would have admired the courage it took for a person who didn't win to still have written a book about the event if it appeared honest and to SOME extent unbiased but I'm sorry to say this was completely not the case here. The author bashes everyone from her competitors to her trainers to the makeup artists, passing everyone or most people off as dumb or conceited and presents herself in a very smart and holier than thou light.
I was not at all impressed by the lack of her ability to appear unbiased and to hide her bitterness at losing the crown.

[Shalini M · Rating 1 out of 5]

Review from August 2006

This book belongs to the genre popularly called as 'chick-lit' these days. One would think I would never touch this kind of book after 'Opal Mehta...' experience. I guess I didn't learn my lesson; but well, the blame is not entirely mine. A good friend of mine, who borrowed 'Opal Mehta ...' from me (against my suggestion), gave it to me "to take a revenge". Oh, I do not doubt her really being my friend by this act - she was the one who also gifted me 'The Kite Runner' :-).

So, this book is about a business management graduate, who has dreamed of becoming Miss Indian Beauty since her childhood. She takes a semester off during her MBA to attempt to realize her dream. The book relates her experience through the pageant.

I found the premise of the story rather strange - management studies and beauty paegents seem poles apart to me. Chosing to ignore this apparent anamoly, there is little that is new or interesting - by now, we have read and heard so much about the things that go on in the world of beauty and fashion - starvation diets, dangerously high heels, exploitation, layers of make-up, and most of all, the superficial questions which bear no consequence, that the judges ask to assess the intellect of the contestants - such as the one this book takes its title from - what would you do to save the world. I mean, in all these years, I have seldom seen any winner of any paegent do anything to uplift the poor, help the cause of health or sports (or anything else that they so grandiously claimed to feel for, and pledged to devote their time and energy to), much less save the world!
The inside view of the goings-on behind the beauty paegants could be appreciated by quite a few people. But its not my cup of tea. I guess I am cured of this genre of literature for good. I am happier with the likes of 'Five point someone' or 'Anything for you ma'am' (which incidentally is the next one I am going to write about).

[Neha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gives you an insight of the behind-the-scene happenings of a beauty pageant. Makes it more authentic as the author has been a finalist in the Miss India pageant. But there is no strong story line and can get very boring at times.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This reads more like a first-hand account of being in a pageant than a novel. The other characters are barely developed at all, and the narrator constantly reiterates that she's not the type of person to be in a pageant, that she doesn't expect to win, etc. It lacks any sort of narrative arc.

[Smita Beohar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too slow & very contradictory. Just blaah!

[Abhishek Jha · Rating 1 out of 5]

What Would You Do to Save the World ? Make sure no one reads this book.

[Vibhuti Bhandarkar · Rating 1 out of 5]

11 pages into the book and it's still all ho-hum! Highly predictable story that's already been half revealed in the back blurb. So expect no cliff-hangers here or anything crest-and-trough in the storytelling. So decided this ain't a show that fits me! Maybe some 'younger' aspiring girl may enjoy it better.

[Simran Kaur · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book gave me a real headache. I got this book in a book club event as a part of a reading challenge and that's the only reason I had to read it. It basically gives a perception of what goes behind the scenes of a beauty pageant. The author was herself a contestant in the Miss India Beauty pageant 2005 who shares her personal account through the fictional character in the book named Ria. But the book does not have any strong storyline. Most of the time I was just skimming through those extremely monotonous descriptions. It was really a boring read for me.

[A. Chakrabarty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A candid take on the highs and lows of the glamor world. A good one-time read.