But the outspoken 22-year-old, voted Most Outstanding Student in the Vow Top 10 Women Students 2007 competition, had other things in mind.
Her involvement with Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Center and Maiti Nepal had injected in Richa a sense of responsibility toward her society. She was determined to be an exception in a generation that is overwhelmingly foreign-bound.
Reasoning that in order to make a significant contribution towards societal good she would need to find a platform that would make her a familiar name in the community, she applied to contest in Miss Nepal 2008.
Her parents were lukewarm about her participation in the pageant.
"They didn´t oppose it, but didn´t encourage it either and even warned that the contest would most likely be called off this year owing to stiff opposition from those who see the pageant as an event that promotes obscenity and exploitation of women," she said.
She had little idea the months to follow would vindicate her parent´s advice, at the cost of her belief in her own country.
Today Richa, one of the 18 finalists of Miss Nepal 2008, is a disillusioned girl.
A vehement campaign against the pageant by activists from the women´s wing of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in September, forced the event´s organizers to postpone the contest for the fourth time. There is no word from the organizers about a new date. With less than two months left in the calendar year, “Miss Nepal 2008” is as good as dumped.
"I feel like a bird whose wings have been clipped," said Richa summing her experience up as a participant of a contest that might never take place.
They say some events are life changing. For Richa, it´s the seeming cancellation of the event that has changed her life’s priorities. She has given up plans to live in Nepal and work for a social cause. She now finds it impossible to continue to believe in a country that neither provides opportunity nor respects people´s choices.
"It´s decided. I will leave Nepal," she said. "There is no opportunity here."
The repeated postponements of the contest have been a daily source of embarrassment for her.
"I have transformed from a person who loved to socialize to a recluse," Richa said.
"Everywhere I go, people ask the same questions about whether the pageant will take place at all and almost all of them seem too willing to offer sympathies, sometimes gleefully."
A PLATFORM TO FLY HIGH
For opponents of the Miss Nepal pageant, it is an event that degrades women into a commodity and glorifies vulgarity. But for participants it is a platform to realise career growths many girls in our male-dominated society can only dream of. There is certainly more than a clash of perspectives.
Nisha Adhikari was 16 when Malvika Subba was crowned Miss Nepal. She grew up watching Malvika and other former Miss Nepals take career leaps.
"It was especially Malvika who made me decide that one day I would participate in the pageant," Nisha said.
Arguing the case for the pageant, Nisha, now 22, asked, "Who would have heard about Sweta Singh, Malvika Subba, Preeti Sitaula, Niru Shrestha or Jharana Bajracharya had they not participated in the Miss Nepal contest?"
“Participants of the pageant, especially those who make it to the top three, receive a plethora of job offers,” she said.
Malvika is now an anchor at an Indian television channel. Jharana is a popular face in the Nepali film industry. Preeti got a scholarship in the United States. And Niru, a former pilot, is a flight instructor also in the US.
"Those who created an unnecessary hue and cry about the event claimed that they were fighting for us, as if we were stupid weaklings unaware of what is going on and unable to fight for ourselves," said Nisha, who also participated in the Japanese pageant - Miss International - when she was 18.
Richa hits back on the charge that beauty pageants promote nudity.
"Swimmers wear bikinis in Olympics. Does swimming promote nudity?" asked Richa. Every event has a dress code and a purpose behind it.
“And if beauty pageants are as bad as the protestors claim, it is strange why other events like Miss University Icon, the Mega Model Contest, and the Homosexual beauty pageant are going on unhindered,” argued Nisha.
THE FUTURE OF THE PAGEANT
Though not officially called off yet, neither the organizers nor the participants have hopes this year´s event will take place.
Girendra Man Rajbanshi, managing director of Hidden Treasure, co-organizer of the event, says it is highly unlikely this year´s event would take place.
"Miss World 2008 will be held on December 13. For sending the winner of Miss Nepal to that event, we must hold the event by mid-November, which is unlikely at best," he said.
The pageant may or may not happen again, and the confidence of many girls within the society have taken a hit from all the controversy surrounding it. This leaves an ugly scar on a democratic society which supposedly reveres individual choice.
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