Aishwarya Rai is in celebration mode. And not because she has just completed 10 years of being one of the most beautiful women in the world!

Friday was a big day for her. "It's exactly 10 years since I was crowned Miss World. Can you believe how time flies? And I am feeling on top of the world," Aishwarya told IANS.

"If I am feeling on top of the world it's because I've been there... I've just come back to Mumbai after meeting our soldiers at Siachen (the high-altitude glacier)."

She is one of the world's most beautiful women about whom poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar once said: "She's so beautiful that people are compelled to say, 'Oh don't lie! No one can be so beautiful'."

But compliments like these don't flatter her any more. She's looking for bigger challenges in life than scaling peaks of beauty.

And certainly Aishwarya seems indescribably exhilarated by the experience of visiting Siachen.

"No woman from our industry has ever been there. And very frankly I was a little apprehensive. But I'm glad I was mad enough to attempt it," she laughs.

"Just to see our soldiers smile and look happy made my heart dance with happiness."

Aishwarya's interaction with soldiers in Siachen will be telecast on NDTV in mid-December as part of the channel's soldiers-meet-star interactive show "Jai Jawaan".

Rani Mukherjee, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Sanjay Dutt and Johnny Lever have been on the show. Though Rani went all the way to Kargil to entertain the soldiers, Aishwarya is the only one to go to Siachen.

Is this her way of conquering new heights? She laughs. "I don't know. But I feel so good after doing it."

And now she is all set to be seen in her first avant garde Hindi film "Raincoat", which opens Dec 12.

"It's my first completely realistic, contemporary character, and I'm very excited about how it's received."