Panjaban by nature

Except,she is nervous. She wrings her palms,trying to hide the cuts on her fingers,a tiny mesh of red. Scars of battle. The girl from Verona has been in her pind Hoshiarpur all week,learning to be the perfect Panjaban from relatives who are still in touch with their roots. I was learning how to cut saag, she says with an Italian accent. The blade was too sharp.

Monica is one of 40 contestants for the title of Miss World Panjaban,a beauty pageant for Punjabi women across the globe,that substitutes the swimsuit round for housework,that quizzes women on general knowledge but is more curious about their ability to finely chop methi leaves and churn buttermilk from a madhani,and is more appreciative about their giddha moves.

At the PTC television channels studio in Mohali temporarily turned into a north Indian wedding point,with a billowing white mandap,uncomfortable maroon-upholstered chairs and chattering women where the semifinals of the contest are being held,the entire Punjabi diaspora and its nostalgia is represented. There is 18-year-old Harsimran Kaur Multani,Miss Spain-Panjaban,pretty as a picture but perhaps a naif when it came to global relations If I win,I have the opportunity to spread my culture in Spain. Or Neerj Kaur Gill,runner-up,Miss Canada-Panjaban,who was chosen after a furious round of giddha performed near the Niagara Falls.

The spoils of this battle are also mostly about tradition: there is a gold saggiphul a traditional ornament,a phulkari shawl and gold-plated ornaments to be won,but also a trip to the US or Canada,and a chance to play a leading role in a Punjabi film thanks to the Punjabi film fraternity that watches the finals in Ludhiana. Monica is very clear about why she is in the saag-cutting,charkha-spinning game,though the Miss Italy-Panjaban does get her Bollywood mixed up. I want to act. I want to be like Kareena Kapoor. I heard she is a lawyer who also acts, she says.

The man behind this celebration of Punjabi culture is Jasmer Singh Dhatt,a retired Punjab Police officer from Ludhiana,who started the contest in 1993 to ensure that this robust nativism flourishes. Girls,in this unapologetically socially conservative worldview,were chosen to keep a dying culture safe. And,of course,he had a thing or two to say about the distinct lack of innocence of regular beauty contests. I once saw a show in Ludhiana,where girls were wearing short clothes and boys were jeering. I saw how uncomfortable the girls parents were. I thought of starting a show where parents wouldn8217;t feel sad. I wanted a beauty contest without the catwalk. Till 2006,the show was confined to Punjab but its fame travelled to the NRI community. It began to attract not only contestants from Muktsar and Gurdaspur,Moga and Chandigarh,but also New York and Arizona,Canada and Australia. Now,every two years,Miss Panjabans from across the world compete in Ludhiana for the crown though a majority of the contestants is Indian. In 2008,around one crore Punjabis watched the finals across television networks in the US,Canada and Australia, says Chhandeep Virk,of the organising team.

In the studios,the first round of the semifinals has started. Lissome girls stand obediently in a queue as their height and the length of their hair is measured. Everyone has to be above 5 4,and waist-length glistening black hair is de rigueur for a soni kudi. The housework round is the one that gives jitters to most of the girls,many of whom are undergraduate students,and unfamiliar with the tasks they are asked to perform. Can you identify the leaves in front of you? calls out a judge. Methi and sarson, answers Arshadeep Kaur Gosal,the winner of Miss Canada-Punjaban,an 18-year-old nursing student in Toronto. Right answer. Ye Punjabi culture nu bohot pyar kar diya. She really loves Punjabi culture, says mother Kuldeep Gosal,who made sure that her daughter was trained at her village Denali over the past week. The Q and A moves on to more familiar territory. The beauty round,where judges quiz them on homemade solutions to keep their skin soft during winters or treat dark circles.

No one-liners about world peace or inner beauty are heard; nor do the girls see anything amiss in being ambassadors of a culture that is so different from the world they have left behind. Navreet Sandhu is a nursing student from Tucson City,Arizona,who is most comfortable in her T-shirt and jeans. She has no problems with the format of the contest: Its okay to have my hair measured. In Arizona,even when I am wearing jeans,people know I am Punjabi because only our girls keep hair this long,8221; she says.

After two days of channeling her inner Panjaban,Monica is through to the finals to be held on December 18,where she will compete with 15 others. Ludhiana might just be a breeze for her. She doesnt have to tell a bunch of methi from sarson,nor wrestle with the charkha. She has to dress up like a Punjabi bride and do the giddha. How hard can that be for an Italian kudi?