By-Neha Kolape

The Miss and Mrs Punjaban Australia 2015 were crowned in Melbourne on 12^th September, 2015. The competition was presented for the second year in a row by the Sanjhi Awaaz Radio and Miss and Mrs Punjaban Australia organising team.

For the very first time the event was held in Melbourne’s western suburb of Hoppers Crossing, in the newly renovated Encore Events Centre with an audience of over 600. Among the list of guests were the CEO of Wyndham City Council and Councillor -Gautam Gupta. The event was beautifully hosted by Mr Sukhjit Singh Aulakh and Deepak Bawa. The extremely tough job of judging was left to the panel consisting of Dr Rasna Singh, Mrs Suneet Sethi, Mr Gurmeet Singh Sran, Dr Sonia Singh and Mrs Monica Raizada.

Winners, Miss Gagandeep Kaur from Dandenong and Mrs Karanjeet Kaur from Deer Park were crowned by the platinum sponsor and owner of Reliance Real Estate, Safwat Ali. The first and second runner-ups for both the Miss and Mrs Title respectively were, Miss Gagan Kaur from Victoria, Mrs Gurmeet Kaur Sidhu Bajwa from Adelaide, Miss Arashdeep Kaur Gillfrom Brisbaneand and Mrs Preet Kanwal Kaur from Brisbane.

Seventeen beautiful and talented ladies from all over Australia took part in the grand finale after competitive auditions. Out of the final 17 ladies seven were in the Miss section and ten in the Mrs.   The winners danced, strutted and amazed their way through six rounds; bridal, solo performance, talent, quiz, cat walk and gidha round. Audiences were kept entertained between rounds by multiple guest performances including Bollywood Dancing, Bhangra and live singing.

Members of the Sanjhi Awaaz Radio and organising team – Shama Bhangu, Gurdeep Singh, Atul Batra, Gaganjot Arora, Navneet Kaur, Ravneet Kaur and Dolly Rai appreciated all the sponsors, guests, audience and the participants. The team are proudly announced that they will be organising more cultural events to promote Punjabi culture in Australia in the near future.