India Post News Service
The International Punjabi Pageant celebrated its 10th year at India Community Center in Milpitas California on April 16, 2022, by executing a classy, elite, colorful, vibrant, brilliant & sporty Pageant, with contestants coming as far away as Philadelphia & Mississippi. This is a unique cultural pageant steadfastly promoting gender equality, integrity, confidence, brilliance, beauty, talent, preserving diaspora, by all this sparking a word, “Punjabi” & doing so while respecting and embracing diversity. The Pageant allows everyone to participate, married, single, widow, male or female, 18 years & older, so long as they meet the criterion.
The founder of the pageant, Parmeet Randhawa said when initial documents were filed, President Trump’s lawyers had objected to use of certain words in the flyers. Ms. Randhawa successfully won the copyright then, under Mr/Mrs. Punjabi USA, as Mr. Trump had decided to make a run for the White House & was no longer interested. Later transitioned to the title of International Punjabi Pageant, opening doors for anyone to register.
The 10th annual pageant was organized by Kay Walia, Pinky Sandhu, Sharan Gill & Parmeet Randhawa, one organizer Kulwant Nijjar happened to be in India, otherwise he too helped with organizing in the previous years. The event was a splendid success, & the compliments started pouring in from the community, it’s contestants, sponsors, audience & finally the winners, 1st place won by Dilpreet Kaur, who received first class airfare to India, 2nd place Daljeet Kaur, received airfares to Hawaii, 3rd place Harsimran Kaur, airfare to New York.
The pageant was respectfully judged by panel of 5 judges, Shakir Awan, IT director, Dr. Sarb Hundal, a surgeon, Neeta Singh, former Ms. Bhopal & India, Victoria David, a banker, & Ritesh Tandon who is running for Congress. The contestants age ranged from 21 to about 50 years this year, in the past it has even gone up to 60 plus years old, & from health care professionals, to IT engineers, to teachers/professors/attorneys.
The Pageant was dedicated to Ray Walia, a towering personality of the Bay Area, successful businessman, many events’ sponsor, a movie producer who produced widely acclaimed movie titled Dheyann Marjania to spread awareness of female infanticide within the Punjabi community; he first sponsored the pageant in 2013, & loved its concept to the extent he started helping with organizing & sponsoring it every year. His wife, Kay Walia now carries on his legacy, though Mr. Walia’s insightfulness is heavily missed, Mrs. Walia is in no way deviates from extending her best to ensure the Pageant remains ever popular, & continues to provide great plate-form, & continues to reach newer heights, the contestants continue to raise its bar every year.
This time a contestant coming from Mississippi, Ravi Kaur indicated she too will try to organize the next International Punjabi Pageant in her state. The organizers couldn’t be more thankful to the esteemed & empowered Team of 2022, & its respected sponsors, Dr. Dalvir Pannu, Rewa Kumar, Dr. Sarb Hundal, Inder Dosanjh, Dr Purewal, Ray Walia, & Ray Sharma, Pradeep Sharma, San Marcos Teeyan, ABI Management, Kulwant Nijjar, RevoMedSpa, Realtor Gurmeet Singh Randhawa, Manraj Mahal, attorney Joti Ruparell, Law offices of Ginny Walia, Kim Khara, Rajwinder Khara, Bavini Joshi, Punia Production, Shakti Manak, Steve Singh, Balkar Singh of Sakoon, Vicky Baasi, Rana Gill, & our wonderful hosts, Jaspal Singh Saini & legendary Asha Sharma. The list is too long for the great & selfless volunteers. The artists of Meera Academy performed a dance item Sajda, Pardesiya, Mandeep Singh, known as Bay Raffi, rendered excellent compositions, Parminder Guri, Jas Sra, Gabby, all rocked the stage. Harnek Nijjar, as usual, great Punjabi opening numbers. Ramneet Kaur Chaudry handled backstage coordination. Hats off to the awesome lineup of artists, & volunteers. Thousands of photos still being processed, with tons of photos on the social media.
The IPP also honored Ms. Asia, Ruchika Sharma, Ms. Teen India Sonali, Mrs. Bharat, Joycy Joseph, & Ms. India Divya.
The organizers Kay Walia, Sharan Gill, Pinky Sandhu, & Parmeet Randhawa wish to extend their deepest gratitude to everyone for contributing to the IPP’s continued success. The International Punjabi Pageant couldn’t have been successful without the community’s support.
Finally, thank you Usa1, Sakshi TV, India Post, Duniya TV Urdu news & Azmi Gill, Boota Baasi for providing media coverage.
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