March 17, 2021 Asmita Aggarwal

Miracle Mindfulness

Mandeep Kaur acquires both inner confidence and the top four FDCI Model hunt finalist honour

By Asmita Aggarwal

When you are faced with debilitating anxiety for years, you look at ways in which you can manage it without losing your calm and deal with frazzled nerves on a daily basis. So the FDCI Model Hunt’s top 4 finalist Mandeep Kaur, has been in therapy and what really helped her through this crisis was making it to this coveted list.

The 23-year-old, Faridabad-based aspirant grew up with a single mother, who was raising two kids singlehandedly, managing her real estate business. When that shut due to Covid, she was forced to open a general store. Seeing her mom, in a precarious situation, Mandeep, who was pursuing styling at Pearl Academy dropped out as the fees became unaffordable. “My parents have been separated for 12 years and I don’t see much of my father. I think I internalised all these problems and it led to depression. I was advised to see a counsellor and that has really worked for me, in the last one year,” she explains.

There is a lot more to the model than just her statuesque structure, she loves animals and has adopted almost 11 strays whom she feeds on a daily basis. “I have also extended my family to another 40 street dogs, who we feed home-cooked meals every day. This exercise of taking dal-chawal for them is the best part of my day,” she smiles.

Growing up with a younger brother, times were tough, but what made her heart sing was playing dress up and watching fashion shows. With no formal training she began modelling for college shows and started applying for contests but faced rejections at many auditions, till the FDCI’s stroke of luck. “My mother was against me getting into this profession, she felt it was an unstable, short-lived career choice, frankly, I’m an introvert, which makes things even more difficult for me, as sometimes people think you are arrogant. Actually you are trying to cope with a lot that is happening inside your head,” she admits.

In the future Mandeep hopes to study human psychology, a subject that has become close to her heart seeing her personal trials and tribulations. “Experimentation is the key to a healthy life, sometimes I also think about starting a clothing brand, but that requires a huge investment which isn’t possible in my current circumstances,” she explains.

The FDCI’s model hunt and subsequent training by Wilderbee Talent Camp (WTC) has unlocked a different person in her that she didn’t know existed and more than anything it taught her life lessons. “Modelling in a way has given me perspective considering the kind of disturbed family I came from. Many people told me that this doesn’t even constitute to a career, but it makes my heart sing and I often get annoyed when I hear such things. Maybe in the future I can change the perception by excelling in this field like others have done before me,” she concludes.

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