“The world is my runway..”: Tabassum Haq

 It is often said luck favours the brave, something similar happened with Tabassum Haq, a former journalist and now a proud organizer of various beauty paegents under a broad spectrum of age groups, who has been invited by a Russian beauty paegent in South Korean to head a delegation. She is a grounded and a humble human in person. Awaz the Voice reached out to her for a tete-a-tete

"Darling, I'll be heading the delegation to South Korea, here I am the National Director for Mrs Universe since 2017," was what Tabassum Haq, a Delhi-born new age enterpreneur told Awaz the voice over a telephonic interview. A lady of girt and enthusiasm, her story is indeed an inspiration for many alike. Coming from a humble background she says, “Many young moms who participated with their toddlers inspired me to start an event called Mrs Delhi-NCR.” 

Today  Tabassum, a mother of two, is the Director of more than 14 beauty pageants under titles like Dazzle Miss and Mrs Asia, Dazzle Mrs India Universe, Dazzle Miss and Mrs India International, Dazzle Miss and Mrs India World, Dazzle Miss and Mrs South India, Dazzle Miss and Mrs North India, Dazzle Miss and Mrs West India, Dazzle Miss and Mrs East India, Dazzle Miss and Mrs Delhi NCR, Dazzl Miss and Mrs Telangana. 

A recent feather to the cap is the "Miss and Mrs United Nations", a pageant which she aspires to conduct in different European and Asian Countries. A proud leader to her four winners from Dazzle's different pageants, Tabassum speaks highly about them, "My girls are my pride, Manjusha, Manjula, Suchita, Yamini-hail from different backgrounds but they have what it takes to create a niche..". 

Tabassum Haq with Mrs. Delhi NCR winner

The event iin Seoul for which Tabassum is packing her bags is scheduled from June 22 and its grand finale on July 3 and the participants will be from more than 100 countries as finalists, she adds, "We are very proud of representing our country in South Korea and by God's grace are hopefull of making our efforts count.."

Tabassum, born in a Muslim household chose education as her pillar to success. She says, “I have been a very basic and a normal girl who wanted to achieve something in her life”. She wanted to improve her family’s financial condition and social stature by all means. “My mother couldn’t complete her education, and this became a major driving force for her unconditional support for us to go for education.” Tabassum completed her grad and post grad from Mata Sundari College of Delhi University and later on received a scholarship to pursue journalism from South Delhi Polytechnic, New delhi. “Journalism changed me completely, it gave me wings to soar high above the sky,” she says.

She started her career from Hindustan Times newspaper and never had to look back. On the personal front love touched Tabassum’s life like a zephyr promising an even brighter future but the road to that unseen life was perilous. “Having struggled in my childhood for every basic amenity, I had already given up the idea of a mundane life, I didn’t feel like wasting life after relationships or trying to improve a community..”.

 

Tabassum with a winner of her beauty Pagent (Extreme right)

Tabassum decided to take charge of her life, and create a niche for herself deep enough to be remembered. Meanwhile Subodh Jain, a reknowned journalist had entered her life, a smooth relationship was developing but then again the inter-religion aspect was something which wasn’t acceptable to the world at large. “Subodh tried to convince my parents but then due to societal pressures they didn’t accept us. We somehow went ahead with our court marriage…”, she adds.

The four winners who'll be participating in South Korea

She says that her in-laws accepted her with open arms and even threw a grand wedding reception for them. She later on was blessed with a baby girl, by this time she had given up on her job as her pregnancy was a complicated one. Little did Tabassum know that this was a blessing in disguise as it was during an event where her munchkin had participated; the idea struck her to launch her own company. “I took my daughter to an event where I found many flaws and decided to start my career…”, she says.

“Subodh supported me completely, this not only gave me confidence but was reassuring…”, Tabassum recalls. She launched her company “Parisa Communications Pvt Ltd” back in the year 2016 and kicked off the events. Tabassum recalls that the original idea was to do toddler events, but the mothers who accompanied their little ones requested something for them as well. “You see, these mothers were newbies and wanted to explore their potential, thus the idea of Mrs Delhi NCR was approached and achieved..I remember many of them saying, ‘Mam hume bhi ramp be chawla do naa..’ (Mam, give us a chance to walk the ramp as well)….”.

Soon she was approached by International fashion pageant sponsors in Thailand. “Thailand was yet again a power booster, the first three winners of the 1st season of Mrs Delhi- NCR, my husband and I went to participate in the event…” Being a thorough professional that Tabassum is, she again found some loopholes in the beauty pageant and decided to launch an International pageant under her own label.

Tabassum (2nd from L), with the winner of Mrs South India

“We were sitting in our room in Thailand when Subodh and I started talking and while discussing the various prospects we launched our International pageant on social media..”, she adds “After coming back to India, we went ahead with the second season of the pageant and later that year we did our first International pageant…”

Talking about her religious believes Tabassum says, “I believe in Allah but my relation with the Almighty is very personal, I may not offer namaz five times a day but I recite Aytalkursi (a verse in Arabic for safekeeping of the individual ) and Chaar Kul (four verses recited to keep evil spirits at bay) on a daily basis…” She believes in serving humanity and follows the mantra of sabr and shukr (patience and gratitude). “Opinion of others hardly ever matters to me, I am because of a Supreme power and that is my status quo..”, she told Awaz the voice.

In April Tabassum hosted her 18th season of the beauty pageant at Raddisson Blu, Pashchim Vihar. She also work for awareness about breast cancer, her events are in collaboration with Dharamshala Hospital that is the leading hospital treating women with breast cancer. Her events are mostly self funded and a portion of it goes to the cancer patients as well. You may find her and her company on Instagram as “Tabassum Haq”, “Dazzle Events” respectively.

Apart from grooming her ladies and making them ready for a stupendous win, Tabassum not only says that the world is her runway where she is a "worldwide citizen" but she also dreams of taking beauty pageants in common households to common homemakers and make them feel confident and beautiful inside out adding to which she says, "It isn't necessary for everyone to be an engineering and doctor but then again everyone is different, and if worked and groomed upon women can outshine in every field.."

She believes in word of the mouth and in-house marketing, right from Facebook to Instagram, the lady of armour is full-fledged in technical knick and knacks of the social media.

Winding off she says, "Darling, life is too short to be limitisize, thus dreaming big is my suo-motto and achieving them with all my soul my call of duty..."