Kathmandu:

They say two’s company and three’s a crowd, but these three beautiful ladies have proved that three’s company too.

They met during the Miss Nepal pageant and became fast friends and went on to win the coveted crowns — Sitashma Chand was crowned Miss Nepal 2007, while Bandana Sharma and Shweta Shah were declared first and second runners-up respectively. However, their friendship has continued even after the frills of the pageant. Four months after their day of victory, they are still best friends.

And as the world celebrates Friendship Day on August 5, we got together with these three friends.

Shweta was the first one to arrive, looking beautiful as usual. Sitashma and Bandana were fashionably late. As they started

speaking, the chemistry between them was undeniable and that’s when the fun really began.

Shweta recalls seeing Bandana for the first time at the pageant interview.

“There was this really pretty girl sitting with such poise that the first thing that crossed my mind was ‘God! She has attitude’. And then she gave me such a big smile that my perspective changed immediately.”

Bandana remembers seeing Shweta entering the room in a hurry.

“She is always in a hurry. I remember her coming into the room hurriedly. She looked so confident that you could see she was career oriented.”

Sitashma didn’t really remember their first meeting, however, both Bandana and Shweta gushed together, “We remember her very well. She was a total show stopper from day

one. As soon as she entered the room, everyone had this question in their eyes ‘Who’s this girl?’

She was pretty, tall and so self-assured.”

And the three of them just clicked. They were closest to each other during the pageant.

“People just didn’t (and still don’t) expect us to be friends. Even the previous contestants find it difficult to believe that we are friends. There have been times when people have tried to tear us apart by trying to manipulate us, but I feel sorry for those people who think they can do it. We are not that naive,” says Sitashma.

She adds that though they were in the pageant as competitors, they did not feel jealous of each other.

She remembers when the names of the Top 5 were were announced, “My name was announced last. I still remember Bandana looking at two of us when her name was announced. We wanted to win, but we were equally concerned about each other.”

Today they even have pet names for each other: it’s Sit, Shwet and Bandu.

But how did they gel together so well?

“We all have the same character. We are serious but at the same time we need to have fun. If I want to go somewhere and tell them, it turns out they too want to go to that place,” says Sitashma.

“Actually she forces us to,” says Bandana with mischievous smile. “But we have similar interests and are on the same brain wave. It’s so easy to communicate with each other. If something funny happens, we don’t have to say the entire sentence. All three of us get the joke,” she adds.

“We are also our best critics. If one makes a mistake, we discuss about it. We share problems and difficulties,” says Shweta.

Both Shweta and Bandana say Sitashma is very ‘mummy like’.

“ We are very lazy, but when it comes to working out, we have to be on time or else Sit will kill us. Actually she takes great care of us, and in a way we are scared of her. But she is

also the funniest and most romantic one among us,” says Bandana.

While Sitashma says, “Shweta is very moody and carefree. After being crowned, we have to be very cautious, which we are in many ways but yet Shwet is still very bindaas”.

Both Shweta and Sitashma feel Bandana is the baby among them and treat her as one.

“She is the most pampered one. She is so innocent and I feel very protective of her. And she can cry at a drop of a hat,” says Shweta.

“But she can also be very direct when she has to express herself. Initially we had to make her speak, but now we have to look for reasons to make her stop,” says Sitashma.

Till now they have not had any major problem amongst them.

“As time goes by we will definitely have some disagreements, but we know that it won’t hamper our friendship,” says Sitashma.

They have very different likes and dislikes: both Sitashma and Bandana loves hip-hop music and dancing, but Shweta loves reading. Sitashma loves gadgets, while Shweta is not very fond of them.

But they love and respect each other as individuals. They all hope to be together having fun and sharing

life’s experiences in the coming days.

Touch wood.