In a glittering function held on November 21, Sabrina Bachai of Long Island, New York, was crowned Maaza Miss India New York 2010. Sabrina, 23, graduated from NYU and is a journalist by profession. Born in New York, Sabrina is of Indo-Guyanese heritage. The first runner-up position went to Chandan Kaur, 22, of Queens and the second runner-up was Noopoor Akruwala, 17, of Long Island. The winners will go on to represent New York in the Twenty Ninth Miss India USA to be held on December 12 at Royal Albert’s Palace, Fords, New Jersey. The winner of Miss India USA will compete in Twentieth Miss India Worldwide to be held on April 27th, 2011 in Dubai. The other four finalists in the top-seven were Annushka Prabhudyal, Dhvani Patel, Nirali Darji and Roshi George.
Aman Kaur, age 15, of Long Island was crowned as the winner of Miss Teen India New York. First runner-up was Amrit Kaur and second runner-up was Sneha Suri, both also from Long Island.
Organized by the IFC, a pioneer in organizing pageants and fashion shows, the pageant was held at the Community Center Auditorium in Flushing, Queens.
The curtain opened with the song “Happening” from the movie Main Aur Mrs. Khana by the outgoing Maaza Miss India New York, Anuradha Maharaj, who led all the contestants to the stage. Victoria Gomes, outgoing Miss Teen India New York led the teen contestants for the opening number to the song “Dhola Re Dhola” from the movie Devdas. The contestants participated in the Indian segment, Evening gown segment and Talent round. During these segments, the audience and the judges got to know more about the contestants and their accomplishments.
The talent segment brought out the best in the contestants as well as the best of the rich traditions of diverse Indian culture. The unique element one could not miss among the items performed was that the vast majority of contestants were second-generation Indian-Americans, and yet most of the items presented were of Indian origin.
After a Question-Answer segment with the seven finalists, then came the announcement of sub-contest winners. Sheena Kapoor was named Miss Beautiful Smile, Nirali Darji was named Miss Beautiful Eyes, Sweety Christian was named Miss Photogenic and Noopoor Akruwala was awarded Best Talent.
In the Teen section, Gunjan Kaur was named Miss Beautiful Smile and Aman Kaur was named Miss Beautiful Eyes. Amrit Kaur was named Miss Photogenic & Best Talent.
Exciting entertainment items were provided by Arya Dance Academy, Jyoti Gupta & Gargi Bagchi, Ritu Shah and a surprise item by winner of Boogie Woogie, Suraj from India.
Dharmatma Saran, Founder and Chief Organizer of the event, thanked the community for its support and presented appreciation plaques to Annuradha Maharaj, Nishi Bahl, Shilpa Jhurani, Farishta Tahir and Tahera Akthar for their enthusiastic support in organizing the pageant. Citations from the New York State Assembly was presented to Annuradha Maharaj and Victoria Gomes for successfully carrying their reign for the year and Amrapali Soni, President of Maaza, North America for her exemplary service to the community. The citations were presented on behalf of Grace Meng, member of New York State Assembly.
Panel of Judges consisted of Raaj Grover – Bollywood Producer, Anita Bhat – President of Miss India Connecticut, Rohan Narine – Journalist, Sandy Bhatia – Vice President, Citibank and Niharica Raizada, reigning Miss India U.K. and also first-runner up in Miss India Worldwide. Choreography of the show was done by Nishi Bahl and Shilpa Jhurani. The emcees were Neha Multani, Tanzie Variava and Tina Kaur.
