A bright smile envelopes the girl born in Delhi, schooled in Uttaranchal and earning her modelling livelihood in Mumbai. As Niharika gushes happily, she's "a complete Indian, not belonging to any one place but to all of India!"

She's a relatively familiar face, with appearances in music videos and television commercials. Is this title going to ensure modelling specialisation? Niharika, a young girl with a penchant for the phrase 'frankly speaking,' disagrees.

"Frankly speaking, I've been modeling for the last two-three years. I used to model in Delhi as well, and I've been modelling in Mumbai for two years after that. Frankly speaking, I thought my life was getting stagnated. I was so sick and tired of doing the same thing again and again every single day of my life -- getting up in the morning, going for auditions. Frankly speaking, I wasn't growing. I thought my life was stagnating. I thought I had better things in life than to get up in the morning, put on some make-up, and stand in front of the camera and smile," she laughs.

"I will model, yes, because that is my profession; that is what I do. But now, I've learnt so much about myself. I'm going to do so many different things. The pageant has opened up many avenues for me, and I'm going to make sure I take full advantage of them."

And then we hear about her interests, and how this Ayn Rand fan devours all kinds of books. Her eyes sparkle with childish enthusiasm: "Oh yeah, I love books. I love reading non-fiction, especially autobiographies. I love reading books about things that I don't know anything about (laughs). Like I just read this book about geishas, and I didn't even know what geishas were, and I thought it was interesting.

"I read a book called The Gay Metropolis [by Charles Kaiser], which I had no idea about. Then I read a book on the eunuch society prevalent in our country, which nobody knows about, and I got so much knowledge. I love reading about those things that I have no clue about."

And then she vociferously begins battling in defence of Rand's Atlas Shrugged.