KENYAN
INDIAN PAGEANT COMBINES BEAUTY AND BRAINS
BY
Margaretta wa Gacheru (Posted August 23, 2017)
The Miss
India Worldwide Kenya (MIWK) pageant was launched in 2000. But after that,
there was a 15 year hiatus which only got broken two years back.
This
international beauty and brains pageant was revived in 2015 and tomorrow night,
the final competition for the 2017 Miss IWK will be held at the new Diamond
Plaza 2 in Parklands.
It took the 24
year old 2015 MIWK award winner Aliza Rajah to confirm the continuity of this
unique beauty competition. She’s taken responsibility for organizing both the
2016 and the current MIWK contests.
This year as
in years past, the Kenyan winner will head to New York City to the Miss India Worldwide
headquarters where the pageant will feature finalists from 40 countries.
The 40 are
countries where sizeable Indian communities reside and contribute to their
respective economies. Among the countries to be represented at the finals are
Australia, Canada, Spain, South Africa, UK and USA.
Aliza didn’t
win in New York in 2015. But that didn’t dampen her appreciation for the competition.
On the contrary, at last Saturday night’s press conference held at the new Concord
Hotel, she explained how she’d received so much in the process of going to the
finals that she wanted to keep the competition alive for young Kenyan women who
would come after her.
“I felt like
‘a winner’ irrespective of whether I’d won or lost the contest,” she said. “Just
being part of the event was an eye-opening experience,” added Aliza who now
runs the MIWK contest through her company, Eventique. She also has her own
fashion line and website. She also runs the Shesha Lounge in the Concord Hotel.
The same
attitude of appreciation expressed by Aliza was shared by the 2016 MIWK winner,
Finali Galaiya, 22. She also went to New York but didn’t win. Ever so, she’s
been inspired ever since by the question she was asked at the MIW finals. It
was “What would [she] do to bridge the gap between Asian and African Kenyans?”
The question
has become a challenge that she’s taken seriously. She now works with a number
of charities, including one foundation led by Sarah Obama, the grandmother of
the former US President Barack Obama.
Both Aliza
and Finali believe one of the most important things they gained from the
pageant was self-confidence. It’s a quality that the MIWK choreographer and
coach Bhargav Joshi, 25, hoped he’s instilled in the ten contestants during the
rigorous three-week training that he just went through with them.
Ranging in
age from 17 to 26, the young women have been coached by Joshi in everything
from verbal skills, poise and presentation to walking the runway. On Saturday
night, they’ll be wearing both Indian and Indo-Western fashions provided by Suvidha
of India and Shenu Gadu of Nairobi respectively.
Joshi also
taught the young ladies to perform together for the Saturday night pageant,
which is open to the public. His training also featured largely when they
displayed their specific skills yesterday at the MIWK Talent Night which was
again held at the Concord Hotel.
Speaking to
a number of the contestants last Saturday night, I found none of them seemed to
lack poise or self-confidence. Most of them were students, like Hiral Gohil, 20,
who is studying Business at the United States International University (USIU)
and is also a freelance artist.
Shivani Shah,
20, is a student of International Relations at Nottingham University who spends
half her year in school; the other half she spends in Kenya working with
charities like Freedom from Hunger and the Helping Hands Trust.
Shivani is
also a former NTV children’s show presenter. She ‘anchored’ the G3 show from
aged 9 up until she was 18.
Judges who’ll
be participating in both the Talent Night and tomorrow’s final pageant are a
well-kept secret. Aliza would only disclose that they include members of the
media, the arts and the business community.
The main
sponsor of the Miss India Worldwide Kenya is Crown Paint, represented last
Saturday by the company’s CEO Rakesh Rao.
Tickets to
the MIWK pageant can be obtained tomorrow night at Diamond Plaza 2 or before
the event either from the Concord Hotel or Shenu Fashions on General Mathenge
Drive.
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