UP’s Miss Tuks Varsity Cup 2015, Durban-born Dr Karishma Ramdev, is a Miss South Africa 2020 hopeful. Representing her home province of KwaZulu-Natal, the beauty queen is one of the top 35 contenders for the crown.

The 25-year-old from Chatsworth graduated with an MBChB degree in 2019 and is currently a medical intern in a Johannesburg hospital where she works 240 hours a month.

“I remember as a little kid walking into a grocery store with my mom and looking at the latest YOU magazine, which featured a strong, fierce, beautiful woman, and telling my mother that I wanted to be just like her. That woman was Joanne Strauss, former Miss SA 2001. For as long as I can remember, I have always looked up to the previous Miss South Africas and have taken so much inspiration and motivation from the powerful women they are,” she says.

Dr Ramdev says she has lived her life inspired by the difference that the former titleholders made, and it stirred a deep desire in her heart to be more than just a professional.

“I want to change lives and being a doctor allows me to do that in little bits every day, but seeing the huge impact the Miss South Africa platform has made in this country makes me want to be part of it all.” 

She says entering the pageant this year means she will have to put her medical internship on hold as being Miss South Africa is a full-time responsibility. She says she knows that it is not all glamour but that hard-work and a deep sense of determination and dedication are required. “I am coming into this competition knowing that I do not know everything but I am so ready to learn and be teachable,” she says.

Dr Ramdev, who was involved in the Tuks Leadership and Individual Programme as well as the SA Cares For Life non-profit organisation during her study years, says her aspiration is to go to every corner of the country, learning more about people’s cultures, extending their knowledge about hygiene and safe practices and empowering them with information to further protect themselves. She hopes that by being a good example to the youth she will be able to encourage them to chase their dreams and make opportunities for themselves.

Studying medicine and helping people have always been her biggest desires, and growing up she saw the good that doctors do in the world and she wanted to do the same in her community. “It was an innate calling in my life. At UP’s medical school we were very practical and instead of learning things in lecture halls, we were working at the hospital, learning at patients’ bedsides. It made us more ready to be interns in the working world.”

Dr Ramdev attributes her success to her mother, who she says shaped her into the woman she is today. “I would not be where I am without her and if I can be just half of what she is, then I would have achieved success. My mother has been my greatest influence. I have never met a woman who is as tenacious, intelligent and enduring yet soft, loving and selfless as her. She has been the most exquisite influence in my life.”

Dr Ramdev advises young women who want to achieve academically and have a social life to learn how to manage their time effectively. They must cut out things that do not add value or allow them to work on themselves. They must get to know themselves completely and expand their knowledge so that they can become wholesome individuals, because life can be very challenging and one needs to have enough confidence in themselves.