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BENSENVILLE, Ill.
The American Business Community of Desis, a newly formed community organization, hosted the Punjabi Lohri harvest festival Jan. 24. More than 200 people attended the event held at Cascade Banquets in Bensenville, Illinois. The master of ceremonies was Gauri Mittal. Sponsors and chief guests were community leader and owner of PMSI Mortgage Ashok Lakshmanan, Dr. Harjinder Khaira and Rosey Bhasin. Most of the attendees were devotees from the Hari Om Mandir in Medinah frequented especially by Punjabis.
Welcoming the guests, Shammi Mittal introduced ABCD as a brand new organization established to help business people of Indian origin network, serve the community and grow their businesses. “Our mission is to provide Indian owned businesses an opportunity to realize their maximum potential with Indian consumers while delivering an above average satisfactory experience at reasonable cost for their product and/or services. Our vision is that we collectively achieve the American Dream.”
The children were kept engaged learning about Punjabi heritage and Indian-American culture through arts and crafts coordinated by Ritu Mehta and Saurabh Mehta. A group of women led by Anshu Paul performed traditional Punjabi Jaago and Gidda folk dances. Everyone also did the Bhangra to disc jockey Sahil Bhatti’s music and dhol beats.
Mahijit Singh Virdi, a former compere for a Punjabi program, Jawan Tarang, and producer of a program of patriotic songs for Doordarshan in India, entertained the audience for almost an hour with popular melodies in Punjabi and Hindi accompanied by some fast dancing, excellent jokes and verses.
Neeraj Malik appealed for support to grow the Indian business community in the Chicagoland and San Francisco Bay areas. Ramesh Malhan, secretary of ABCD’s sister organization, United Punjabis of America, seconded his appeal.
