MUMBAI: The Dadar gurdwara is the scene of an unlikely revolution. A svelte beauty wearing low-waist jeans is reciting the Jap Sahib to her neighbour. At the head of the table, a team of beauty experts is handing out customised grooming tips for the next day's beauty pageant.
On Friday evening, 19 beautiful Sikhnis who avoid trimming their hair and wear the shining kada on their wrist will compete for the title of Miss Kaur International 2009, likely the first beauty contest in India being held exclusively for Sikh women.
Two years ago, Puran Singh Banga who heads the Sat Sri Akaal Charitable Trust started the Mr Singh contest for Sikh men. Now comes its female avatar, Miss Kaur International.
Of course the aim is to promote the panth, so parents and grandparents in traditional enclaves like Mohali and Jammu have given their blessings to their girls. The only semi-rebel is an airhostess from Mumbai. Believing that her aspiration to win a beauty contest sits oddly with her present job, she has excused herself from work saying a prospective bridegroom was visiting her family over the week.
The gamine assembly of participants comprises IT professionals, insurance agents, interior designers , even a student of animation. Miss Chandigarh is there and Miss Mumbai too. One of them had played the part of Preeto in the film Singh is Kinng, which last year's male contestants had decried saying it lampooned the Sikh religion. The ladies do not share such misgivings.
On January 8, they converged here from all parts of the country including New Delhi, Amritsar, Jammu and Mohali. They share living quarters at the Sri Guru Singh Sabha in Dadar, and it is here that they are being groomed for the contest. Meals are taken care of at the daily langar.
"We work out in the gymnasium for an hour every morning and then pray at the gurdwara upstairs. Through the day we learn how to walk the ramp and take part in grooming workshops,'' says Ravneet Kaur. Incidentally, none of the girls uses any last name other than Kaur, just like the men stopped at Singh.
Living up to their Punjabi lineage , the sharp-featured , fair skinned Sikhnis would make the grade at a national contest with a little help from tweezers and hot wax. Although some of them have trimmed their hair in the past, the liberal organisers allowed them entry after persuading them to return to the tenets of Sikhism. "We realise we made a mistake,'' says a proud peacock running her fingers through her streaked hair, hardly looking contrite.
Her rival raises a pretty white finger from afar. "I'd like to make one thing clear. We have all signed an undertaking that we will never trim our hair henceforth. If we do, they can take action against us,'' she says. Truly, should the winner violate the eleventh commandment and be caught for having cut her hair anytime in future, she will be divested of the title.