Aamruta Parab of Saco was recently crowned Miss India Teen Maine. She talked about the pageant, her school and her life in Maine after moving here from India this fall in a recent interview. Tammy Wells Photo
SACO — A 16-year-old who had the opportunity to come to Maine from her home in India to study this fall is making new friends, joining school-related clubs, and was recently named Miss India Teen Maine for 2020.
Aamruta Parab was crowned at the Miss India New England pageant, held in Woburn, Massachusetts, on Dec, 1.
The pageant, according to the Miss India New England website, “is designed to identify and support talented young Indian American people and promote culture, traditions of India in USA for modern generations.”
In a recent interview, Parab talked about the pageant, her life in Maine, where she resides with her aunt and uncle, Seema and Sunny Patil, and their children, and her hopes for the future.
Parab arrived in Maine on Sept. 3.
“I had the opportunity to study here at TA, and it is the best school in Maine,” she said with a smile.
After she completes her studies at Thornton Academy, Parab, a high school junior, said she wants to study to become a psychiatrist.
“It is a chance to study different kinds of people, how they behave, what they are thinking,” she said of her interest in the field.
These days though, she is concentrating on her studies at TA, and settling into life in the United States. She enjoys learning languages and studied at an English school in her home country. She likes music, singing, playing guitar, art and writing poetry and stories.
And besides school work and hobbies, Parab and her Maine family are to take a vacation to Disney World, to experience U.S. culture, and have fun.
The pageant, she said, was a new experience. She is the first Maine resident to receive the crown, and the event was her first pageant.
“I was a bit nervous, but I enjoyed it,” she said.
For the talent round of the pageant, she sang a song in Hebrew, called “Erev Shel Shoshanim,” or “Evening of Roses,” taught to her by TA Performing Arts teacher Cathy Murray.
For the question and answer session, she was asked to name her role models.
She said she told the judges her role models were her family and friends, because she has learned from all of them.
“Our parents worked day and night for us,” she said of herself and her younger brother. “They’re like the roof on a house, that protects the family.”
About her friends she said they “are always there to support us, you can trust them,” said Parab.
Earning the title Miss Indian Teen Maine gives Parab the opportunity enter the Miss India USA national pageant, should she decide to enter.
Besides her studies, Parab is a member of the environmental club at school, the Interact Club and said she’ll participate in any school-related activities that she can.
“I have to achieve a lot of things in my life,” she said. “I want to make my family proud.”
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