Reita Faria, then a student of medicine at Grant Medical College, Mumbai, went on to win the crown of Miss World in 1966. Her victory resulted in a foreign policy scandal in India and the Indian Parliament got into a tizzy; demands were made to revoke her passport. All that she had done after victory was to visit Vietnam as part of her duties as the new Miss World and cheered American soldiers. The government of India at that time supported the communists and opposed American intervention in Vietnam.
On the day of the #MissWorld contest, the bookies placed her chance of winning at 1:66. Now 73, #Reita Faria recalls that there was one Indian who bet on her winning. And he was merely expressing his patriotism. With just £3 in her purse, she had come to London to contest against beautiful girls from across the world. The bathing suit that she wore was borrowed from a previous Miss India, Persis Khambata. It was too short and too ill-fitting. The sari in her ensemble had been borrowed too.
Since her studies at GMC could not be resumed, she now joined King's College, London to finish her medical degree. In the meanwhile David Powell, then a junior doctor at Dublin, had begun to woo her. They would marry in 1971.
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