Nine young ladies will be facing off tonight at the Starlite Drive-In Cinema, Montrose, East Coast Demerara, for the coveted Miss India Guyana crown.
Promoter of the show, Asif Nawaz, promises that tonight’s event will be four hours of live entertainment, because even as the nine delegates compete for the crown there will be performances from the Sitare Dance Troupe and other local entertainers.
According to Nawaz the members of the dance troupe will be dressed in costumes depicting the various time periods of Hindi cinema, and they are expected to create a spectacle as they reflect on the golden era and portray the varied dance forms of today.
The delegates are expected to “celebrate the diversity of India” as they vie for the crown, and they will be showcasing different states in India, particularly the ones from which their Indian ancestors came.
The delegates will also be featured in talent and costume segments. Nawaz said the main objective of the pageant is to select a young lady who “personifies proper cultur[al] values and one who depicts a true Indian woman.”
Show time is 8 pm and patrons will be asked to pay $500 entrance fee. The queen will be receiving $200,000 in cash and prizes which include a ticket to Trinidad, compliments of Travelspan, while the first runner-up will cop a trip to Kaieteur Falls as part of the $100,000 prize package. All the other delegates will receive gifts of appreciation for being part of the pageant.
Vying for tonight’s crown will be 19-year-old Rosita Ramdhan of Leonora, West Coast Demerara (WCD), a student of the St Roses High School; Sarojni Lalbachan, 15, of Grove, East Bank Demerara (EBD), a student of the International Business College; 15-year-old Amanda Sugrim, a student of the Bernice Mansell Academy of Grove, EBD; Mohini Roopchand of Aurora Estate, Essequibo Coast, who is 18 and a student of Abrams Secondary School; Canal No 2 Polder resident, Sandy Singh, who is also 15 and a student of the Patentia Secondary School; Vasty Ramphal of Triumph, East Coast Demerara (ECD), a student of the University of Guyana (UG); Kenwah Chow Quan Yi, a 20year-old communication student of UG and a resident of Enmore, ECD; Monda Ferreira of Suddie, Essequibo Coast, a 20-year-old who is a freelance journalist; and Annasha Safe of Leonora, WCD, a 22-year-old sales clerk.
