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At 22, Mia Rahaman is unquestionably a well-rounded young lady, when one considers that she has experience in a variety of areas including teaching, racing promotion and was even a tour guide for one of Guyana's tourist attractions.
But the icing was really plastered on the cake for the Libra-born when she was crowned Miss Guyana/Universe last Saturday night.
"Mia is a free spirit. She is a very positive person... She found herself a little while ago and she loves who she is. She loves people and she is exciting..she loves her family and her friends, loves to help people." This was how the new beauty queen described herself, when Stabroek News interviewed her yesterday.
Rahaman's kindness was demonstrated during the interview, when a woman with her child approached and asked for some money to purchase something for the child to eat. Without hesitation, Rahaman dug into her bag and gave the woman some money, saying with a sad smile that she never liked to see children suffer.
Continuing to describe herself, Rahaman said that though she was a bit of a procrastinator, she always got things done.
Mia, Mia, Mia nice
The first of five children, with the youngest being just over a year, she laughingly recalled that her little sister opened the newspapers on the day of the pageant and saw her in a full-page GT&T advertisement and said "Mia, Mia, Mia nice," and started laughing. "Oh, when I heard that I was so touched," Rahaman said.
Dressed in a light green sleeveless flowing dress completed by brown fudge-heel slippers with her hair flowing, Rahaman had a ready smile and glowing eyes as she excitedly chatted about her life, accomplishments and shortcomings.
The beauty attended the St Margaret's Primary School and after writing Common Entrance, gained entry to President College but because her first choice was Bishops' High School she attended that school.
After writing the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) exams she went on to the Johnson & Wales University in Miami, Florida, which is a private culinary and hospitality institution, where she completed a year and a half in hotel restaurant management. She was three months short of her degree when she dropped out because she realised she was not taking in the information like she felt she should have and decided to take a break.
After the break, she moved to Canada where she did courses in Advanced English and Calculus and also worked at a hotel as a front-desk clerk. She also did modern jazz and dancing in that country to keep herself occupied. "I know how I am, if I don't keep myself going I would just fall into some hole and never come out," she said.
After a few months she returned to Guyana and wanted to get back into teaching since prior to leaving Guyana she had taught Information Technology at Mae's Under-12 School, from Prep A to Class Four. Her first job out of secondary school was at Cara Lodge where she did a management course and also worked as a tour guide at Whitewater Tours, "so I know a lot of my country."
Grass track racing
Speaking of her work in grass track racing, Rahaman was keen to point out that while she is a grass track promoter she did not ride the bikes. Rahaman arranged seven tournaments last year and one for this year and she explained that she got into promoting the sport mainly because she grew up in a motor sport family.
Her father, Ray Rahaman, is one of Guyana's most popular racing drivers and according to his daughter he started off racing grass track. She recalls that as a little girl she was at the racing circuit even before it was fenced and just hills and sandbags existed. "There was a stand that was breaking down and my mother used to holler on me for going onto it," she said.
Being a business-oriented person, Rahaman disclosed that she started a promotion business last year -- Club 747 Event - with the idea of planning and organising events for persons. But she got no business and Rahaman decided to see what she could promote. She felt that grass track racing was dormant in Guyana and started to promote it. Rahaman has also promoted a chutney show, but while the promotion went well the turnout was disappointing.
"I am a go-getter. I like to do things myself. With the grass track nobody helped me. At first my father showed me the ropes then I broke away and did it on my own," she said. And it has been very good business for the queen since she has never suffered a loss at any of her tournaments.
Her life changed dramatically last Saturday and Rahaman is aware that she would not be promoting grass track racing anytime soon, especially since she has her eyes set on the Miss Universe crown.
Rahaman noted that even though she had the opportunity of living away from Guyana she returned because "this is my home." She recalled that her father told her she would have to find something to do and she did. True to form Mia sees winning the crown as another opportunity to remain in Guyana.
Role model
Brushing off comments by some persons who feel that she is not an ideal role model because of the lifestyle she led, Mia said "I think I am the perfect role model because I have made mistakes in the past, and who hasn't. But what I did unlike people, I don't dwell on them I learn from them so I would not make them again."
Asked if she drank heavily socially as has been claimed, Rahaman said: "The whole of Guyana drinks socially. No I don't drink heavily." After a few seconds, she piped up: "Maybe I used to a long time ago, through adolescent rebellion, you know, you are just trying to find yourself. Now, I cannot remember the last time I drank." She said she smoked in the past but had stopped a long time ago. It was while she was in college and it had something to do with boredom.
"I am not fat," were the queen's words when she referred to the criticism by persons that she was too heavy to be a beauty queen. She said when she entered the pageant she had 156 pounds and she lost about 12 pounds of body fat and then put on back about five pounds. She lost the weight by watching her diet and although it was punishing for her she stuck with it.
At 5' 10" Rahaman feels that she has the right weight, but she acknowledges that she would have to lose more to become the ideal beauty queen. She would be focusing on losing weight from her arms and has been advised that she would have to be about 133 pounds before going to Puerto Rico next month.
Rahaman said many persons might have thought she would have been the last person to compete in a beauty pageant, but they would not have known that she modelled as a child and did numerous advertisements. "I am a well-rounded individual. I can enjoy anything. I am a lover of life," she said.
She recalled that because of her weight she worked three times harder than the other delegates, "and I deserved to win."
Juanita Collins
Rahaman said she believed she had an excellent chance of winning although she thought that second runner-up, Juanita Collins and Sheneze Galloway, who did not place, were her biggest competitors.
She was not surprised when she heard her name in the top five, but when she heard Collins' name announced as second runner-up she was visibly shocked during the contest. "I could not believe that Juanita got third, that threw me off completely." But from that moment, she said, she knew that she had won. And she explained that her surprise at Collins placing third was not from the crowd's reaction, but because even though Petal De Santos is a lovely girl, she did not answer the final question as well as she and Collins did.
"Juanita is a brilliant, brilliant, young woman I could never put that past her. I went to school with her. She was a year ahead of me," she said. "Juanita was the one I was worried about," the queen said. Collins had been the favourite of a section of the crowd at Saturday's contest and they let loose a stream of abuse at Rahaman and the judges after the order of the top five had been announced.
Rahaman recalled that during the evening gown segment one of the straps on her gown popped but she did not let it bother her. She simply popped another one on the other shoulder, tucked both of them in and did what had to be done.
"That is something people would have freaked out about but I was so composed and I said to myself I gave this my best shot and there is nothing I could do [about the strap giving away]," she said.
Mentioning the crowd reaction after she was announced queen, Rahaman admitted that she was a little nervous and all she was concerned about was that her father would not become too upset and do something drastic. "I was afraid that somebody would attack me, but all in all that gives me extra motivation to change their minds, and I hope that when I return home everyone would be proud of me," she said.
Rahaman leaves for the US next Tuesday to train for the upcoming Miss Universe contest and she feels that she has what it takes to make her country proud.