In addition to that they all enjoyed a spectacular day of fun, excitement and contentment to their favorite Punjabi food. It was a typical scene of Punjabi Mela depicting Halwais making Jalebian and 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 15 years.

This Mela was fun for children, teens, adults and seniors who participated in different sports showing their energetic rhythm, athleticism, sportsmanship and enjoyed different traditional sports including Kho-Kho, Volleyball, Football, Kabaddi, Weightlifting, Egg Toss, Painting etc. .

Beside the sports this year PHO added an on the spot art competition for children to Punjabi Mela and a quiz of adding Punjabi letters and choosing the right word and it’s definition from given four choices. Four children answered all the questions correct. Children were so excited to participate in art competition that they patiently waited in long line to get on drawing board to draw their art.

Another attraction to this Mela was a raffle draw of nine different prizes from $11 cash prize to teeth whitening (valued $400) by Lake Street Dental.  Narinderpal Singh Marwaha was seen busy convincing people to buy raffle tickets. Jatinder Singh Grewal, Dr. Harjinder Singh Khaira, Khushpal Singh Sodhi and Jaswinder Singh Sandhu donated raffle prizes to raise funds for PHO at the Mela.

Winners were presented with T-shirts and Team trophies in different sports competition. In the kid’s category, Harbir Singh won first prize in the boy’s race and Gurveer Singh Bhullar won second. In the 7-9 year age category Paramjit Singh won first prize and Tejbir Kahlon won second. In 10-14 year age category Sunny Singh won first prize and Navdeep Singh won second. In youth category Andy Gill won first prize and second was by Pinda. In girls category 6 years and under Kiren won first prize and Dilpreet won second. In 7-9 category Ameek Kaur won first prize Harleen Kaur won second. In 10-14 years category Gagandeep won first prize and Paramjit won second. In teen category Jasdeep Kaur won first prize and Rinku Rangi won second. In women’s category Salwinder Sandhu and Jaspreet both won first prize and second won by Vippan Kaler and Amardeep Kaur. In thread and needle race Mrs. and Mr. Jairam Singh Kahlon won first prize and Mrs. and Mr. Gurmukh Singh Bhullar won second. In egg toss competition first prize went to Gurmukh Singh and his partner and second to Deep and his partner. In weightlifting competition under 150 lb. Category Gurtej Singh Dhillon was first and Baljit Singh Ghotra was second, in 150-180 lb. category first prize went to Paul Komal and second jointly to Mandeep Jammu and Karan, in 180 lb. and above category first prize went to Jimmy Sandhawalia and second to Manny. Volleyball title won by Guru Nanak Sports Club Indianapolis the runners up were Kairali Lions of Chicago. Football championship won by Barcelona (Ecuador) and Patrol (Mexico) were runner up. PAO team won Kho-Kho title PHO team were runners up.

The highlight of the Mela was the Kabaddi match between Doaba Sports Club of Chicago and PCO Sports Club of Milwaukee, which was widely attended by all age groups. PCO Milwaukee won this match with the final score of 41-37. 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.

Billa Chai Wala, Happy Heer and Gurmukh Singh Bhullar entertained the attendees with their witty talk and live commentary of Kabaddi match.

Balwinder Singh Sandhu. Jatinder Singh Grewal, Davinder Singh Rangi, Iqbal Singh Randhawa, and Raghvinder Singh Mahal, distributed prizes among the winners of these events.
 
Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Harjinder Singh Sandhu, Hardial Singh Deol, Lakhpaul Singh Johal, Kintu Bawa, Harkirat Singh Sandhu, Ameen Mattan, Manjinder Bhambra, Davinder Singh Rangi, Iqbal Singh Judge, Parminder Singh Mangat, Jagdev Singh Dhillon, Jagtar Singh Dhillon, Mandeep Singh Nagra, Jasmir Singh, Iqbal Singh Randhawa, Pal Singh Gill, Mohinderjit Singh Saini, Amrik Singh, Ashwani Kumar, Jaswinder Randhawa, G.P. Singh and two anonymous donors sponsored this event.
 
Jagmit Singh, Sonia Kular, Pooja Sahni, Baldeep Singh Mangat, Gurleen Kaur Sidhu, Mandeep Singh Mangat, Sunny Singh Sanghera, Shawn Singh Sanghera, Anmol Kaur Sanghera, Sunny Sandhu, Johnjit Sandhu, Arvin Randhawa, Jaswinder Randhawa, Sunny Judge, Surinder Singh Bhatia, Irnjyot Sanghera, extended their volunteer support to make this event a grand success.
 
Raghvinder Singh Mahal, Dr. Harjinder Singh Khaira, Makhan Singh Brar, Lakhwant Singh Komal, Surinder Singh Sangha, Paramjit Singh Sangha, Paul Singh Komal, Jaspal Singh Kaler, Gurmukh Singh Bhullar and Jairam Singh Kahlon were referee for various sports competitions.

Indermohan Singh Chhabra and Jaswinder Singh Sandhu took photographs of this Mela. Paul of DJ Sun Shine entertained people with Punjabi melody. Lakhbir Singh Sandhu and Kamaljit Singh Virdi worked very hard to look after the arrangement of food, soft drink and water.
 
All the board of directors worked hard to arrange this event. In the end, the president of PHO, Kirpal Singh Randhawa 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.
 
PHO celebrating Bhagat Puran Singh Ji’s birthday on 23rd July at Sikh Religious Society, Palatine and its 15th anniversary, Punjabi Night 2006 with Manmohan Waris, Kamal Heer, Sangtar on August 26 and invites you to participate in both upcoming events.
 
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 http://www.phochicago.org/ or email us at
 
Released by: Jairam Singh Kahlon