Dubai: Ankita Jain Bhatia has a glittering, diamond-encrusted crown on her head, a six-year-old son at home and a husband who is her loudest cheerleader. But if you thought marriage and motherhood came with an expiry date on a woman's ambitions, the newly crowned Mrs UAE World has news for you.
This Dubai-based model trainer isn't retiring her stilettos or settling for the sidelines. She's heading to Las Vegas this January, hoping to bring home the international crown for the UAE.
And Bollywood? Not on her wishlist. She's chasing something bigger than a glamorous title; legacy of her own.
When Bhatia arrives at the Gulf News headquarters, she looks every inch the beauty queen. Sash in place, dazzling smile and posture so impossibly perfect that I find myself sitting a little straighter.
But there's more to this Dubai-based entrepreneur and model trainer than an enviable ability to sit elegantly for 20 minutes without slouching.
For starters, she's been married for almost 15 years, has a young son, and has spent more than two decades in the fashion industry. She's also refreshingly matter-of-fact about the double takes she gets when people discover that the woman wearing the crown is somebody's wife and mother.
"A lot of my students aspiring to be models also say that to me that we didn't know that you were married and you have a kid as well," she tells Gulf News.
Bhatia, however, isn't particularly interested in fitting into anyone's preconceived notions of what a married woman should look like or aspire to become.
For her, the crown is not a midlife rebellion or an escape from domesticity. It's an extension of a career that began when she was a teenager in India.
And, as she repeatedly reminds me, it's also an opportunity to give something back to the country she now calls home.
From Class 10 board exams to the catwalk
Bhatia's relationship with fashion began long before marriage, motherhood or the UAE entered the picture.
Growing up in India, she was fascinated by photo shoots, models and actors. Her first brush with modelling came courtesy of a neighbour who happened to be a designer.
The timing, however, was rather inconvenient. She was in Class 10, preparing for her board examinations, when he asked whether she would like to participate in a photo shoot.
While most parents might have suggested concentrating on mathematics rather than modelling, hers were supportive.
"My parents were very supportive and they said yeah go ahead if you want to do it," she recalls.
The photographs turned out well enough for her to approach Elite Modeling Agency, where her journey in the industry began.
What started as a teenage adventure eventually became a career spanning more than two decades. She went on to train aspiring models in India before relocating to the UAE because of her husband's work.
And instead of treating the move as a professional full stop, she picked up where she had left off.
"When I moved here ... I just started training models here," she says.
It's an interesting reversal of roles. For years, Bhatia had been the woman preparing others for the spotlight, teaching them how to walk, present themselves and navigate the fashion industry.
Now she is the one being judged.
Fortunately, walking in heels is hardly unfamiliar territory.
"I think this I've grown up with that you know like wearing heels," she says with a laugh.
As for the nightmare of stumbling on the runway, she isn't losing sleep over it.
"It's all about poise. It's all about poise, and I think that's what really matters."
And that, perhaps, is a useful metaphor for her life beyond the catwalk too.
A crown, a husband and a six-year-old cheerleader
Bhatia makes no attempt to present her success as a solitary achievement.
Ask her who deserves credit for her latest milestone and she immediately points to her husband.
"I think it's because of him that I'm sitting here next to you today wearing this crown and sash, all because of his support."
Her six-year-old son, meanwhile, has already embraced his role as chief cheerleader.
She remembers him enthusiastically supporting her when she won the crown, and both husband and son are expected to accompany her to Las Vegas. But I am curious about something else. Can married women really have it all?
"Of course. Married women have it all and how!," she declares without hesitation.
She acknowledges that the balancing act requires attention to work, family, home and oneself.
She also sees beauty pageants as more than a parade of glamorous women in elaborate gowns.
"They are very empowering, and it gives you certain kind of voice," she says.
"It gives you certain kind of you know the platform where you can actually talk, and people will recognize you. People will listen to you."
Of course, whether beauty contests empower women or reinforce narrow beauty standards remains a legitimate debate.
Bhatia has made her choice. Rather than dismissing the platform because of its contradictions, she wants to use the visibility it offers.
Dubai: The city that gave her ambitions a second runway
For Bhatia, the UAE isn't merely the country where she lives. It's the place where she believes her professional ambitions found fresh momentum.
Her relocation could easily have meant starting from scratch in an unfamiliar market. Instead, she continued working in fashion, building on her experience as a model trainer.
She credits the UAE with giving her the confidence and opportunities to pursue new ventures.
"UAE has given me the power, the strength, the freedom, and in fact, UAE has turned my vision into my ventures," she says.
It's a line that sums up her Dubai success story rather neatly.
But she is also clear that opportunities don't amount to much unless somebody acts on them.
When she arrived in the country, she made it a point to set herself a target every day.
"Not even a single day I stopped myself. Every day I had a target that what I'm gonna do today."
There were no grand declarations about conquering the world. Just a determination to keep moving professionally, even while adjusting to a new country and building a family life.
Today, she finds herself representing that same country on an international platform.
And she's taking the responsibility seriously.
"I am taking this with a pride and and with lot of confidence and dignity that I will be representing UAE."
She has her sights firmly set on bringing home the international crown.
Six glasses before breakfast? Welcome to the beauty queen's morning
Now, no conversation with a beauty queen is complete without discussing the inevitable beauty secrets.
And Bhatia has one that makes my morning cup of coffee seem positively lazy. She begins her day with what she describes as six small glasses of different drinks.
There's warm water, chia seeds with honey and lemon, a concoction involving fennel and cumin seeds, amla juice, and warm water with turmeric and ghee among the preparations she describes.
She calls them her "magic potion".
Thankfully, she isn't advocating surviving on lettuce leaves or starving oneself into a pageant gown.
"Otherwise, I eat whole everything," she says.
She also exercises for around an hour, incorporating strength training and outdoor running into her routine.
She admits that pageant preparation requires discipline around fitness, diet, skincare and grooming.
But when I ask whether she's following an extreme no-carbohydrate diet, her response is immediate.
"Not at all."
Beyond the crown: Why women's safety matters to her
The conversation takes a serious turn when Bhatia speaks about women's safety, a cause close to her heart. Having grown up in Delhi, she cherishes the freedom she enjoys in the UAE, where stepping out at 2am or taking a taxi alone doesn't feel like a risk.
"Even you can step out at two at night, go to mall, take a taxi. Why here? Why not any like entire world?" she asks.
It's a question that cuts through the glamour. Beyond the glittering crown lies an uncomfortable truth: for millions of women, safety remains a daily concern.
Bhatia hopes to champion the cause through awareness campaigns and educational initiatives, with plans to build her next venture around women's safety.
"I'm not going to change it overnight," she admits, but she's determined to make a difference. Whether she can turn that ambition into action remains to be seen.
How Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen inspired her beauty queen dreams
Long before she wore a crown herself, Bhatia was captivated by Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen, the Indian beauty queens who went on to conquer Bollywood.
"Oh my God! Like I used to see them, like Ashwarya. Oh, she's so so cool. She's stunning, and of course Sushmita as well," she recalls.
But unlike her famous predecessors, Bhatia isn't rushing to Bollywood.
"Not for me right now. For me, I have to make a legacy," she says.
And if Bollywood comes calling? "If it's going to come, it will come."
For now, Las Vegas beckons, where she hopes to bring home the international crown for the UAE, a country she credits with turning her ambitions into reality.
By the end of our interview, Bhatia is still sitting ramrod straight, her crown perfectly in place. I, meanwhile, have spent much of our conversation trying to match her posture and wondering whether I could ever manage six different drinks before breakfast.