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Press Release
Midwest’s oldest Punjabi organization, Punjabi Heritage Organization (PHO) celebrated its annual Punjabi Mela at Busse Woods, Elk Grove Village, Illinois on July 19th. This Mela was widely attended by the Punjabi from all over the Midwest who joined hand in hand celebrating the Punjabi culture, heritage, sports and traditional games.
Although Mother Nature played hide and seek with everyone but finally the day turned out to be perfect for the Mela. Attendees enjoyed a spectacular day of fun, excitement and contentment to their favorite Punjabi food. It was a typical scene of Punjabi Mela with traditional Punjabi style food, which was catered totally free of cost to all the attendees who showed up in the Mela. Organizations/teams came from Michigan, Indianapolis, Wisconsin, Iowa and St. Louis who not only competed in their respective sports but also became a part of this traditional Mela, which PHO has been celebrating from last 16 years.
The day started with Kids activities, which included Races and Soccer Kick and was enjoyed by all. Adults were busy in participating in three-legged race, Marble and spoon race, races, shot-put, and other fun games. Fancy Dress Competition for the kids got thunderous applause when the little kids dressed up like bride, groom, farmer, Princess and so on. While they were representing different backgrounds, other kids were swirling around the clowns who were painting their faces and doing magical tricks for them. Winners of the games were awarded with T-Shirts mementos.Plenty of food for everyone included Tandoori Chicken, Burgers, Karhi, Chol, Naan, Cholee and Jalebiyan.Volunteers made sure that there is enough Gatorade and Water for everyone after it got humid after the rain.Prominent Punjabi Poet from New York Deep Mangli enthralled the viewers with his shayro shairey. Punjabi Singer from Vancouver Sukhraj along with Aman mesmerized the audience with his popular numbers. Happy Heer and Gurmukh Singh Bhullar, Dr. Harjinder Khaira handled the stage performances and Kabaddi Matches.Punjab’s popular game Kabaddi was one of the highlights of the Mela where players participated from Michigan, Milwaukee and Chicago and brought most of the spectators around the ground. Kabaddi is an outdoor team sport. It requires stamina, both mental and physical skills, extraordinary reflexes and exceptional eye-hand-leg coordination. It has a distinct flavor which resembles in some aspects that of both wrestling and rugby. Kabaddi is a sport, which Indian in general and Punjabi in particular has been trying to induct in Olympics.Chief Guest for the Mela was 3-time ‘Man of the Year Award’ winner from State of Michigan, Sunny Dhoor and his wife Neerja who commended the efforts made by PHO in bringing this social, cultural and sports event for the Midwestern community.Mela was sponsored by R&S Petro, Hardial Deol, Five Rivers Entertainment Indianapolis, Azad Driving School, Jagtar Singh, Iqbal Singh Randhawa, Raghvinder Singh Mahal, Mandeep Nagra, Iqbal Singh Chopra, Parminder Mangat, Kamaljit Virdi, Kamaljit Singh, Sukhmel Singh Atwal, Jaidev Singh Bhattal, Anmol Inc, Balwant Singh Hansra, Manmohan Singh Minhas, Lakhpal Singh Johal, Logan Square Animal Hospital, Amar Carpet, US Kenosha Truck Stop ( Pappu Corp ), Thakar Basati, Gurpal Sanghera, Sarwan S Raju, Dr. Harbans Singh Mavi, Charnjiv Singh, Happy Heer, Santokh Singh DC and Narinder Singh Sra.Photography for the Mela was volunteered by Indermohan Singh and Mohinder Rakalla.All the board of directors worked hard to arrange this event. In the end, the president of PHO, Micky Kahlon acknowledged the participation, efforts and support of all volunteers, supporters, donors, patrons, retired and current PHO board of directors to make this event another success of PHO. The organizing committee included Mickey Kahlon, Lakhbir Singh Sandhu, Paramjit Singh Sangha, Tejinder Singh Minhas, Dr. Gulroop Singh Hansra, Jaswinder Singh Sandhu, Kirpal Singh Randhawa, Mohinderjit Singh Rakalla, Mandeep Singh Jammu, Manjit Singh Dhanoa, Tony Sanghera, Kulwant Singh Nagra, Jasbir Singh Sahota, Narinderpal Singh Marwaha, Jairam Singh Kahlon, Satnam Singh Aulakh, Davinder Singh Rangi and Dr. Harjinder Singh Khaira.Punjabi Heritage Organization is a non-profit community organization dedicated to promote Punjabi cultural heritage, sports and social events.For more info please visit our website www.phochicago.org or email us at
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