Saluting today’s woman No, I am not Pritish Nandy,” said corporate director of Specialty Media Ltd Joseph Sebastain, who was also the emcee, setting the mood for the event. Women of all ages and from all walks of life and a number of ‘supportive’ men had gathered to honour the women of substance at the third annual Vow Top 10 College Women Competition 2006 awards ceremony held at the Yak and Yeti hotel on February 4. With jokes like “behind every successful man is a woman, and behind that woman is the man’s surprised wife’, Sebastain did not fail to make the event a memorable one for the winners as well as the guests and others. Perhaps one will not be too wrong in borrowing John Lennon’s lines — ‘You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one...” On this beautiful day, the 10 ladies being awarded were not alone. Well-wishers, one and all, had turned up to applaud these extraordinary women for their hard work and achievements. Though from different age groups, backgrouds and places, all gathered were bound together by a single dream — the dream of accomplishing their goal. And yes, it was a day of celebrating success, talent, grit and independence, and everything else that today’s woman is. The Vow Top 10 College Women Awards honours women students from +2, Bachelors and Master’s degree for their outstanding performance in the education field. Not only academic excellence, their leadership skills, involvement in campus and in community, and their goal in life are taken into consideration while shortlisting them. Shalini Wadhwa, CEO and managing editor of Vow, gave an inspiring and powerful speech about how people have different perspectives to reach success. She said lots of enthusiasm, hard work, passion and little bit of luck makes a person’s success story, but the real success lies is her ability to make a difference in the world, and by motivating and inspiring others with her work. She added that love gives rise to positive thinking, and that thought is changed into action, and action becomes a habit — that is how a successful person is made. The chief guest of the event was none other than the indomitable and respected human rights activist Anuradha Koirala, chairperson of Maiti Nepal. The winners walked home with a cash prize of Rs 10,000 each and gift hampers from Unilever Nepal Ltd. ...and the winners’ are • Shleshma Adhikari (Budhanilkantha School) • Chandni Karmacharya (Lincoln School) • Jolly Amatya (St Mary’s) • Pauline Limbu (St Xavier’s College) • Srijana Limbu (Kathmandu College of Management) • Pratistha Thapa (Kathmandu College of Management) • Pratichya Pandey (Kathmandu University School of Management) • Rama Adhikari (Balmeeki Campus) • Bandana Roka (Ace Institute of Management) Most outstanding student • Deepti Khakurel (Nepal Engineering College) • I feel great to be chosen a winner. I think I will study Micro Finance after my Bachelors, and as for the prize money I’ll hand it over to my mum. — Pratikchya Pandey • Oh! I was ali ali (a little) hopeful that I’ll get the award. I’ll use the prize money for my organisation Yatra. — Deepti Khakurel • I was not sure but it feels nice to win. I am planning to go to the US and will be doing my nursing there. The prize money will go towards my college expense. — Chandni Karmacharya • This proves that if you dream you can achieve anything, hard work always pays. I love reading, so I’ll be using the prize money to buy lots of books. — Pauline Limbu All the girls who participated are fantastic. Everything they have said are so inspiring that others present here were awestruck by their vision, dreams and the way they represent today’s women. They are very good in the way they communicate. They have certain goals in life and they are working hard to achieve those. Their dedication and passion areremarkable.