|
Is every child capable of learning
to read at such a young age?
Every single child, no question about it! Put children in the right
environment—put them in [an] environment where they are having
fun—they will learn. Forty percent of children are born with
Attention Deficit Disorder and parents, especially South Asians, don’t
want to admit that their children have problems. But these are correctable
problems. If you get children at a young age and teach them to focus
on fun learning, they will grow up thinking that learning is fun.
I believe every child is born a genius. They are like birthday presents,
little surprises, and you must open up the surprises, see what’s
there and enjoy it. Children can’t be boring nerds! They have
got to be able to socialize, interact, speak, make friends easily—core
skills for living in the United States. We’re trying to change
the mentality of learning, what learning is all about.
Do you have any plans to open more Genius Kids schools?
We plan to go global! I have had requests to open Genius Kids in Singapore,
India and Malaysia. We will expand in the United States first. I would
have done this sooner but have waited until now because my children
are now 19 and 16. I wanted to focus on them and spend time with them.
Now that they are older, I can focus more on Genius Kids.
How many hours do you work, in a typical week?
I work all day long—I’m a workaholic. I focus on the children
at Genius Kids from nine to three, when the children are there. Everything
else takes over after three. After three, I work on curriculum because
I’m always looking for new materials, changing programs, and
looking for more effective methods. After three, I also focus on hobbies—my
[fashion] shows and [pageant] productions.
How did you decide that you wanted to start running beauty
pageants?
Since I was a young girl I’ve been working on fashion shows
and participating in them. I wanted to take part in the Miss Femina
shows in India but they wouldn’t let me because I grew up in
Kenya. In Kenya, they wouldn’t let me enter the Miss Kenya pageant
because I wasn’t African. I was a true NRI [Non-Resident Indian].
I didn’t belong anywhere in terms of shows. So I dreamed of
producing shows for women like myself.
I believe that it’s important for Indian women to have a platform.
Pageants used to mean parading women across stage—they were
beautiful but had no brains. I wanted to create a platform to showcase
that Indian women are both beautiful and talented. In 1993, I held
the first Miss San Francisco India pageant in the San Francisco Bay
Area and the pageants took off from there.
These pageants are very successful because the focus is first on
public speaking and communication, and then beauty. Confidence and
communication are key. I endorse education and scholarships—our
whole focus is on participants achieving their dreams, not targeting
[the] acting industry.
What age groups do your pageants cater to?
Here [in the United States], the local pageants are typically 18-29
for the “Miss” pageants and 18+ (no age limit—but
we have contestants up to age 55+) for “Mrs.” The reason
we have "Mrs." pageants is that I don’t feel life
ends just because you get married. Sometimes Indian women think, “Oh
no, I’m married, I can’t do shows.” So that’s
another reason we want to endorse “Mrs.”—they can
continue competing and feel good about themselves.
What kind of segments do your competitions include?
The most crucial segment is called “Self-Expression”.
What I believe is that every candidate should present herself and
show who she is. I give them 45 seconds and they talk about why they
should win. They may use their outfits and props to help explain themselves
through a little skit. For example, one woman really wanted to be
a television reporter, so she came out dressed like a reporter with
a large, cardboard television. We use this segment to endorse our
shows. Also, we always crown the winner wearing a sari.
In South Asian-oriented pageants nowadays,
it seems there is a push not to be “too American.” For
instance, an American gown is often looked down on, and organizers
and contestants prefer Indian outfits. Do you support this belief?
We always crown our winner in a sari only because I feel
like the India part should stay there, and I like the uniformity.
When I did my world pageant, Miss NRI Global, we had women from 30
countries and everyone wore American evening gowns. Because there
were women from places that didn’t wear saris, they didn’t
feel comfortable. So we kept the evening gown instead of the sari.
The women in your pageants all seem to really enjoy the experience
and have such positive things to say about you. How are you able to
get to know all the contestants when you have all the logistics to
take care of?
To me, getting to know the participants is very important.
I can feel comfortable getting to know them because my shows are very
clean, with no agendas. We use computerized scoring and I don’t
have anything to do with the scores. For that reason I can easily
get to know each girl. In our shows, everything is transparent because
scores [are] available immediately. I also feel it’s very important
that women know who’s behind the show. I do the interviews during
the selection process because I want to get to know the participants
and make sure that they are coming in with the right frame of mind—for
the right reasons. Sportsmanship is key and our pageants don’t
cater to personalities without it at all. I get to know the women
and I can do that with a comfort zone knowing I have nothing to hide.
Even the judges think twice before favoring a particular contestant—we
actually designed an in-house scoring system for our shows.
Tell me about the show you are about to do in India.
What I’ve done is that there is a gentleman here, Rahul Roy
[a California based entrepreneur], who is a regular sponsor for my
pageants. He wants to brand himself in India with a show, so we’re
doing our very first international show—including women who
aren’t Indian. The competition will run from April 16-23, 2006,
with women from 13 countries. The focus is more on modeling and whoever
wins will be launched on all of [Roy’s company’s] products.
Do you hope to make your pageants as popular as Miss America
or Miss Universe?
Absolutely! I hope my competitions become as large as Miss Universe.
We could be compared to Miss America because of our structure—education,
scholarships, for Indian girls all over the world. We treat our participants
well—there is no entry fee, they stay in a five-star hotel,
their meals are sponsored. We want them to all go back home saying
“I’d love to do that again.” That’s the goal.
Do your pageants include contestants from South Asia in general,
or just India?
We go with “Undivided India”—our contests are open
to all South Asians. Last year’s winner of the Miss NRI Global
2005 was Mehru Khan, from Pakistan.
Do you have any intention of expanding the pageants beyond
South Asian women?
I think my focus will be on South Asian women for the pageants, because
I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. The other ones are doing
a good job—Miss Universe, Miss America, Miss U.S.A. I would
rather focus on South Asians. But my modeling competitions are transnational.
Do you feel like your roots are in Kenya or India? If someone
asks you about your background, would you say Kenyan or Indian?
Kenya is my home. I’m a Kenyan citizen—I’m Indian,
my culture, my heritage—but my country is Kenya.
Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
My goal is to take Genius Kids globally—Genius Kids all around
the world. I would like to be known for that because it’s my
passion. I’ve really got something here—happy, successful
kids. We had a parent who wrote us from Texas and his child was put
into a gifted program at the high school level because of his critical
thinking skills and confidence. I have parents saying that I impacted
their children, and it really makes me feel like I have done something
special. And I would like to share it all over. And of course, I’d
like to still be doing pageants and have women around the world doing
shows. I want them to believe that they can achieve their dreams,
so they can go home and aspire to do what they want.
How do you manage to coordinate two successful careers, raise
two girls and still have a life? What is the secret to your success?
Time management! I know exactly what I’m going to be doing at
a certain time. When I was raising kids as [a] single mom, I stayed
home and worked from there, even though I had lots of opportunities.
When they were able to go to school, I was able to go get [a] job.
My mom taught me time management—I make sure I spend specific
time on specific activities and can balance Genius Kids and the pageants.
Also, I believe in networking—and the power of [the] internet
makes life so much easier.
The secret to my success is that I really believe
you have to be passionate about what you do. I will not do projects
I don’t like—I’m really zero percent or 100 percent.
In terms of success with my kids—my kids are part of what I
do. My daughters are very involved in shows—organizing, seeing
rehearsals—and my older daughter is a coordinator for the pageants
so we can all spend time together doing them.
My advice: make sure what you do, you do best and right—and
keep your family close to you at all times!
Roopika Risam is the Managing Editor of ABCDlady.
Back to Top
|
