For close to 6,000 Punjabis who have made Chennai their home for many years, September 9 is going to be a special day.
They will get a rare opportunity to see the Badmash of Bollywood — Mika Singh — perform at the Nehru Indoor Stadium in the city. Touted as one of Bollywood’s biggest singers, he will be in Chennai for a music concert to mark the celebration of 75 years of the Punjab Association.
The Punjab Association, a release said, had a humble beginning, starting in 1937 as a recreation club with only 15 Punjabi families. The members met at a small rented place, primarily for social contacts and on December 1, 1937, the idea to form an association was broached.
When refugees, during partition, escaped to Chennai, the Punjabi families in Chennai took care of them. Relief camps were set up and the early Punjab Association helped refugees get houses, export licenses, telephones and shops, in which they could run their own businesses.
“When a child is born in a Punjabi family in Chennai, we would give them a glimpse of how Tamilians in Tamil Nadu helped the Punjabis,” Ramesh Lamba, general secretary of the Punjab Association said.
Addressing a press conference in connection with the platinum jubilee celebrations, he said that the association had been taking care of 200 children by providing free boarding and lodging. This is in addition to education and healthcare provided at Vaniyanchavadi village on the Old Mahabulipuram Road.
As part the celebrations, inter-school cultural events are also being organised at the educational institutions run by the Punjab Association in different parts of the city and the outskirts.
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