Delhi Friends Club and the Lions Club International (distt. 321A) organised Miss Delhi University 2001 on the 12th of March 2001. The contest was held at FICCI auditorium, Mandi House. Eighteen of Delhi University's beauties competed for the title of 'Miss D. U. 2001'. The participants belonged to colleges like St. Stephen's, Gargi, Vivekananda, Kirorimal and colleges of the like.

The contest started with a musical item presented by Pradeep Sharma, which was followed by 'vandana' (prayer) by Manu from Vivekananda College. The contest finally began with the introductory round. All contestants walked down the stage in saris as their particulars were read out. They then gave their introduction to the audience. One claimed to be running a jewellery designing business whereas another claimed to posses the qualities of the mind. A couple of contestants faltered, but thanks to a generous jury and their good looks, they managed to make it to the next round.

In the 2nd round, 8 contestants from the total of 18 were eliminated. The victorious 10 moved to 'Talent Round'. All 10 were required to display their talent in front of the audience. Some of the girls danced to Indian classical songs, some to pop music, one girl even performed a 'mujra'.

The six to enter the 3rd (and the final round) were Kavita Bagla (Gargi College), Nishu Verma (Vivekananda College), Namita Nanda (Gargi), Krithika (Bharti college), Sunayana Saraswat and Dimcy Chopra (Kirorimal).

At this juncture everybody was tense in anticipation of the questions to be shot at the contestants. This was quite a grilling round as was evident from the faces of the contestants. Questions like, "What do you think of Indian culture and heritage?" and, "What is it that attracts you? Physical appearances or internal qualities?" were handled with ease and grace.

Titles of Miss Beautiful Eyes and Miss Beautiful Smile were also awarded. The winners of these were Sunayna Saraswat and Namita Nanda respectively. Spontaneity and humour however, were missing.

But when the three winners were declared, the audience was satisfied with the results. Nishu Verma was declared as Miss Delhi University 2001. The 1st and the 2nd runners-up were Kavita Bagla and Sunayna Saraswat respectively.

The elation felt by the victorious three was adequately put into words by Ms. Aarti Chopra, a former Miss D.U., "It's nice to have such contests. The very title 'Miss DU' does wonders for the self-esteem of the winners and gives them oodles of confidence."

- Pritika Sethi