Super model and Hollywood actress Claudia Ciesla has many firsts to her
credit. She is one of the first firangi models to be awarded the Karamveer Puraskaar in India for her social activism and involvement. She is also the first foreign model to make it to the Bigg Boss 3 house. Last year, (the now late) Jade Goody – a foreigner - was invited almost as a special guest of host
Shilpa Shetty to the Bigg Boss
house.
This was primarily because of
Shilpa Shetty’s interaction with Goody during her stint at Bigg Brother and the participation of Goody had a different agenda alltogether. But Claudia’s participation in Bigg Boss makes her the first foreigner to enter a well-known Reality Show in India all on her own, should we say merit.
While all these are commendable ‘firsts’ for the 21-year-old natural blonde, what many of us do not know is that Claudia Ciesla is a professional stunt plane pilot. She has an amateur pilots flying license and has been flying stunt planes as a stunt plane co-pilot for the last two years – whenever she has the time that is out of her modelling, ramp and
fashion shows, says her publicist Flynn Remedios. Claudia has also flown F-16s and other military
aircraf at air shows in Germany. Of course the F-16 she flew was a modified version without any military entrapments. The planes didn’t carry any weapons, but never-the-less was an F-16s all right.
Coming back to her social work, Claudia Ciesla was awarded the prestigious Karmaveer Puraskaar Award by iCongo on 26th November. iCongo is the confederation of NGOs and the apex body representing major NGOs in India and the Khemka Foundation with partners like TISS, BCCI, NASSCOM, etc.
Last year Kajol was the recipient of the same award and Claudia Ciesla joins the elite group of Bollywood personalities including Rahul Bose, to be recognised for their contribution to society and their efforts to “make a change”. The award was accepted on her behalf by her spokesperson and manager in India, Flynn Remedios as Claudia Ciesla is locked up in the Bigg Boss house – a very popular reality show on the GEC Colours.
The Karmaveer Puraskaar, is iCONGO’s National People’s Award for Social Justice and Action that honours concerned citizens who have been and led the change they wanted. In the past, Ad guru and social activist Alyque Padamsee, Dr Rebello, Rahul Bose, Remo Fernandes, M S Swaminathan (Father of the Green Revolution in India) have been recipients of the Karmaveer Puraskaar.
12-01-2009, 07:04 PM
Claudia Ciesla flies a F-16 fighter
