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Misty
is a born-again Christian who attends a storefront church
where the strains of piano and guitar mix with the sound of
worshipers speaking in tongues. During filming, she began
to date Isaac, a non-Indian boy she met on a mission trip
to Jamaica. She says it's important to her that she marry
a Christian. Unlike the other contestants--whose families
come from affluent circumstances in India-- Misty's parents
grew up in Trinidad, where her mother lived in a mud hut until
she married. Misty has virtually no contact with the Indian
community, although, she says she's "seen little kids
in Atlanta". Misty feels left out and unwanted by both
white and Indian America.
She
says she wanted to enter the pageant because she had always
wanted to be in a beauty contest, but had been "afraid
to race against white girls". At times she appears to
reject her Indian heritage: "That was my great-great-great-great
grandparents' generation and I live in the US and I say, 'Who
cares?'" Yet, at other times, she seems to feel a sense
of loss. She says of the pageant: "I do feel a little
left out, because I'm not as Indian as the others." And,
in fact, Misty is seen as an outsider. At the pageant, the
MC makes suggestive remarks about Misty's aerobic dance routine
--something he would never dream of doing to any of the other
girls. Misty feels rejected when she fails to place in the
pageant. Afterwards, in the dressing room, she weeps with
disappointment, and is consoled only when she is enveloped
by the affectionate hugs of a dozen white Christian friends
from Church.
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