Kathmandu:

We’ve seen the bevy of beauties sashay and spark off a storm. We’ve also seen housewives romping along the ramp to rock the nation. What with debonair men, daring to challenge them with equally ferocious derring-do? Well, the hunt for the fireball is on! So batten down your hatches and get ready to prove your mettle at the Manhunt International Nepal 2006 to be held in March.

“We started the Manhunt International so that we could take the fashion field to the international frontiers, and we are doing our best. And this time we are trying to make it even better,” says Anup Saxena, the brain behind the Group of Event Entertainers.

The shining scion of the Jyoti Group, who also won the title of the Manhunt International Nepal, participated in the Manhunt International 2005 held in the city of Busan, Korea. Talking shop with The Himalayan Times, he shares his experiences and offers a few suggestions for the aspiring participants for the year 2006.

A North Eastern University alumnus, Surhid is candid enough to confess that he was never disposed to take modelling as a profession. But, after walking the ramp for some local companies in the USA, Suhrid decided to push his passion a bit further.

“When I came back, I still wanted to be myself, at least once. And fortunately, I came in touch with Anup Saxena and you can very well imagine how I was tempted to bank on the brightest chance of winning a pageant”, he articulates.

“I wouldn’t say that my participation was in itself remarkable in terms of achievement. But I made a lot of good friends and we spent some amazing time together.

It almost felt like being huddled back to a Boarding school, and it was great fun to be frivolous once more,” he recalls.

Educated to be an Industrial Engineer; he can use his wits until it hits you to the core. But, after almost two years of hiatus, the drive to clinch the title had almost waned when he participated in the year 2005. And that he almost felt belittled when contestants from other countries sported Armani suits while he still stood spunky in his short stature donning that amiable smile.

Perhaps, his participation in the Manhunt International was his final stint as a model, but he still retains that charismatic flamboyance in his persona, when he explains with an unabashed air of insouciance, “Every morning I wake up, I make it a point to get myself dressed well. The only difference is that, now I dress up more for myself than for the media.”

The event, which could have been a smashing success almost, petered out for the lack of support from the local sponsors. Even RNAC, which was the official Airlines, couldn’t arrange for the ticket to the only participant, as explained by the organisers. Suhrid complains that though he was lucky enough to afford the tickets himself, he wouldn’t have been able to make it had he been less fortunate.

One might not be able to bag big modelling contracts all at once, but Surhid believes in the dictum ‘ small starts precede big bashes’. “But then, the big bash might never happen unless you’re strictly serious about your profession,” he warns.

So where does Jyoti see himself ten years from now? “I have so many things planned for the future and I’m into a slew of industrial projects of my own.

And perhaps, I’ll be married, doing my usual business in the meantime doing something for the society.”

Manhunt International 2006 is scheduled for April 20,2006 which will be held in the city of Jinjiang, Fujian province, China.