PUNJABI ANTENNA
Punjabi pind in vilayati village
Randeep Wadehra

THE global spread of Punjabi diaspora is impressive. They’ve made their mark in diverse fields, which is relayed back home by Pardesaan Wich Punjabi. It gives us glimpses of the way Punjabi NRIs have adapted to different cultures. There’s obvious assimilation of traditions to an extent, but the cultural essence is kept intact. Thus, you find them building gurdwaras in Birmingham, and celebrating festivals like Baisakhi in Southall with gusto. The culture continues to evolve. At the moment one can safely dub it as remix culture. The PWP anchor kept harping on ‘similarities’ between the English and Punjabi countryside: how a farmhouse there resembled one back home and the well there reminded her of a Punjab village khoo. The only difference, said she in all seriousness, was that wells back home still had the Persian wheel.

Parat Dar Parat’s episode on hockey was both timely and interesting with the game’s past and present stalwarts airing their views on why our standing in the world arena has nose-dived. Hope our IHF demigod, KPS Gill, was watching the thought-provoking show.

Alpha Punjabi’s Ban Ja Sitara Yara quest for talented vocalists ended on June 4 when Rajpura’s Amanpreet Kaur and Mansa’s Surmandeep Singh were adjudged winners. The talent hunters’ team, headed by Mukesh Gautam, conducted singing contests in different cities of Punjab. The idea was to unearth new talent and to enable it to achieve its full potential. With celebrities like Dolly Guleria, Shamsher Sandhu, Sardool Sikander, Malkit Singh, Surinder Shinda and Atul Sharma evaluating the contestants, one hopes the winners will measure up to the expectations.