Pageant News Bureau - Neelam Verma

Canadian pageant fans are among the most dedicated on the planet. They cheer passionately for their queens and argue endlessly about scandals. In their loves, their hates, their obsession with the details of contests, they disprove the myth that pageant fever is confined to balmy climates.

But these loyal aficionados rarely have international winners to cheer for. While tiny island nations can boast multiple victories, Canada has had only one Miss Universe in history.

Neelam Verma of Etobicoke, Ontario, may be the woman to break that jinx. What more could you want in a beauty queen? She's a businesswoman, an actress, a model, a TV host, a licensed scuba diver and a dancer. She has the mind of a scholar, the soul of a sage and the body of a babe. All this, and the face of a Canadian.

Actually, as alluring as Ms. Verma's face is, it's not what some people would expect to see on a woman from the "Great White North." Americans in particular still think of Canada as just an emptier, chillier, paler version of their own country. But forget the vanilla myths. Canada is one of the most diverse nations in the Western Hemisphere.

Ms. Verma is a multicultural phenomenon in her own right. She speaks five languages and is learning a sixth. Her roots are in India, but she likes to watch hockey and listen to Latin music. Two of the people she most admires are Mohandas Gandhi and Shania Twain.

She's a "full-time explorer" who has trekked through deserts and jungles, sometimes riding elephants, camels, horses and donkeys. She has visited 25 countries, but her favorite season is an autumn in the Canadian countryside, when the red and yellow leaves catch the dazzling sunlight. "It's a magical time," she says.

Though she practices meditation and believes in nonviolence, she wouldn't mind sparring on the silver screen with a certain handsome secret agent. "I'm definitely the mysterious, adventurous and dusky type that you see in the older James Bond movies, especially the ones with Sean Connery. I would be a Bond Girl in a heartbeat!"

Now that you're in awe, dear reader, and wouldn't care if Ms. Verma lived in a pumpkin patch, we can give you the really impressive facts: She's a graduate of the prestigious Schulich School of Business at Toronto’s York University. She's a strategic brand manager who has worked in the marketing of some of the world's best-known beauty products. She works with the Association of Indian Women in Canada and Amnesty International. She's a member of the Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce, which provides information on South Asian foreign policy to the Canadian government.

When we told you she has the soul of sage, we weren't kidding. And since wisdom is even greater than beauty, we will close with a quotation (from her beautiful lips): "To cease to give is to cease to live."

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