They are an unusual Group of 20 from Israel, bounding down the steps to the Taj Mahal in colourful ghaghra-cholis carelessly tied over halter-tops and jeans, with Converses peeping from behind sequined fringes. They are students, waitresses, there’s even a telephone interviewer for the Gallup polls and a soldier. For a brief while, they have left behind their jobs, guns and their lives in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Beersheba and Rishon LeZion, to become contestants for the Miss Israel pageant next month in Haifa. But before putting their best cheek forward to be Malkat Hayofi (Beauty Queen), they are ready for their India fix, to marvel in Hebrew at the mausoleum of a mallika from where Arabic characters gently look down on them.

They are mostly Jews, no Arab to proclaim religious diversity, no ultra-orthodox Druze to provoke controversy, no Indian descendant to track her roots to where Mumtaz lay. No huge symbolism here.

But as they stand for the obligatory group shot, the tall Galit Amara, with curly hair and Ethiopian parentage, beside the Russia-born, blond, blue-eyed Polina Miro and the 19-year-old Karin Cohen whose parents are Moroccan, they show, like an unrolled map, the immigrants’ trails to the Promised Land.

“But I really can’t find any differences. We are all Israelis,” Amara shrugs, before joining the 18-24-year-olds — chosen from over 2,000 applicants — preening before the marble that gleams like warm, molten butter on a winter morning.

This is part of their photo shoot for the show’s promotional, says Iris Cohen, national director of the Miss Israel pageant, who has been taking these women, most of them on their first trip outside their country, through Jaipur, Mumbai and Agra, before flying to Delhi tomorrow.

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