The Punjabi diaspora in Virginia.

 On 21st May, 2018 attended the Punjabi diaspora in the US. I was really fascinated by this event held in US soil and in my various visits to US this was the first time that I saw so many women in colourful attire the salwar kameej of India, otherwise most of the time, I see women in business suit or in dull colours. My daughter in law has spent most of her life in Punjab and she was instrumental in taking us here . There were thousands of people dressed in Indian clothes, women were sporting the latest fashion with designer Patiala salwar and fancy suits,colourful and beautifully embroidered dupatta, pgulkari work being the dominant one, most of which must have been bought on trips to India, I think. Food and clothes stall selling their ware and Pizas with a Punjabi tadka, Jalebi and Chole Bhature  were selling like hot cakes. Some one had gifted free water and cold drinks, fans for the weather was sultry. The children performed Gidda, Bhangra and many more young children performed the various dance forms of Punjab.They had invited four Punjabi pop singers from Punjab and every one was swaying to their songs though I did not find much variety in the songs, most of them with the same rythym and tone. There is a Virginia school of Bhangra that trains the children here and teaches them dance. The community here is helping many NGO organisations in Syria too with money. There was  talk of Nigeria and also  how a bus had fallen into Beas river. They also spoke of how Delhi is getting polluted and the soils in Punjab are being badly affected by the use of plenty of fertilizer and how drugs is becoming common among youths.All the conversation was in Punjabi. The community here was keeping in touch back home. Many of the children are born and brought up here and I could see a lot of difference in the way the girls were walking. Unlike in India where girls walk slowly, here the girls walk very briskly and take big big steps and have a different style of walking. A very interesting peek into how the community out here keeps in touch with its roots and yet is also becoming Americanised.