Arts
Taking on life’s challenges, Harini realises her modelling dreams
Harini Silva always knew she belonged on the ramp. Her inspiration is her mother Chrishanthi Dias, now known as Preenie Silva and who was Miss Sri Lanka for Miss Asia Pacific in 1984. Now Harini herself is enjoying the limelight having been adjudged the first runner-up at the Top Model of the World 2018 at a gala ceremony at the MERAKI Resort in Hurghada City in Egypt on December 15.
Big moment in her life: Harini (left) at the contest
“I grew up seeing my mother being fashionable and elegant and all the things she accomplished. I felt I had it within me and that’s what has taken me all this way,” Harini says. Going back to the exact moment when she found out that she had won a place at the competition her first thoughts were that she had made her father proud. “I also hope I made my country proud.”
Harini has been runner-up at both Miss Grand International Sri Lanka and Miss World Sri Lanka but going to Egypt and experiencing a different culture and meeting new people have been memorable. She is grateful to designer Brian Kerkoven whose training helped her. “He has been more like my father I would say. He is like a father to everyone who works with him. I always had a chance because I had the confidence and ability to take the initiative that I learnt through my training here,” she says.
Harini says that she had an excess of outfits when she went for the pageant. Thanks to her friends at the Academy of Design where Harini completed a Diploma in Fashion and Textile Industry, she was well prepared for all the events.
Talking of the challenges she faced in life, Harini recalls three things that impacted on her greatly. When her father died when she was 16, she was devastated. “Losing my dad was hard for me especially at that age.” Next was when she fractured her foot in an accident. It had to be re-set for it to heal properly and Harini was sure that it was the end of her dreams of becoming a model but she got through that as well.
Harini has also battled depression but challenging the stigma associated with mental illness in Sri Lanka, she is open about it. Finding her passion in modelling had taken her out of the dark path she was spiralling down, she says. “Passion is what helps you realise the purpose in your life. Modelling brought out the best in me.”
“Everything I have wanted has been given to me in 2018 and that was all through God’s grace and hard work. You can’t expect things to happen if you aren’t willing to work for it,” she says full of hope for the new year.