Mr. Ramchandani came to Jamaica from India in 1967 at the age of twelve. But he was not born in India. He was born in Burma, where his father was a rich garment manufacturer . In 1964 when the country became communist all the family assets were seized, and at age nine, he was a refugee in India. It was then that is working days started, as he held a job and continued his schooling.

Later the opportunity was given for one of the three Ramchandani boys to join an uncle in Jamaica. Lachu was the youngest, but succeeded in convincing his father that he was mature enough and ready to leave home. He arrived and started working at his uncle’s Manhattan House in downtown Kingston for 12 years. Of course, he found the time to attend classes part-time at Durham College on South Camp Road. After that, he worked several companies in Kingston, including Devon. Then it was on to selling buns on the street of the bustling capital streets. Lachu Ramchandani has found his niche. He was a good salesman and still is.

In 1976 he opened his Nik-Nak shop in Montego Bay , a souvenir gift shop which caters to tourists. But sales was already in his blood, so he left his wife, Bina, to run the business while he continued to sell souvenirs across the length and breadth of Jamaica. Mr. Ramchandani comes across as a kindly gentleman. Soft –spoken. Calm and quite gracious. Mr. Ramchandani does not see himself as rich. In fact, he can name many other merchants and businessmen in Montego Bay who are far better off than he his. But he had to make a contribution a mark… Do something more than earn and live … Set an example for others to follow… Make his family proud. He has done all this , and much more. But all that aside, Lachu Ramchandani has also been involved with several organizations and charities. The Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce, AmCham, Lions Club, Director of Good Shepherd Foundation, Charlotte’s Children Home , Blossom Gardens Children Home, Director of NPG Insurance Company, Jamaica Deaf Association, instrumental in assisting the JCF and sports especially cricket and also a committee member of the Elegant Corridor in Montego Bay.

He has been a Justice of the Peace since 2002 and his latest achievement was been awarded the Order of Distinction recently which is a great honour symbolizing the effort he has put into assisting with the development of Jamaica.

He is first and foremost a family man with an adoring wife and four children he also enjoys his involvement with beauty contests. He has been sponsoring and hosting beauty pageants in Jamaica for over twenty five years. It would be inappropriate for anyone to mention the development, progress or even the ups and downs of the various beauty pageants in the county of the Cornwall in general, and the parish of St. James in particular, without mentioning the name Lachu Ramchandani.

He assists the Indian High Commission in representing Montegonians in Montego Bay . He plays an active role in the Indian community and always make it his point of duty to welcome the Indian High Commissioners to Jamaica and introduce them to the Indian Community since year 1980.

It was in the year 1993 that Mr. Ramchandani was first invited to participate in Ms. Jamaica World Cornwall as a sponsor. Then under the stewardship of Mrs. Jackie Dickenson and Mrs. Marva Fray. Mr. Ramchandani responded well to the invitation and became a major sponsor.

After only a year of mingling with the beauties, it seems that Mr. Ramchandani’s penchant for beauty grew rapidly and it was quite clear that nothing short of a hands-on involvement would satisfy him. His first year of participation was so inspiring, helpful and fulfilling that greater responsibilities was being drafted to vest into him. For instance, it was due to his instrumentality of sending five hand-picked girls into Kingston for the national finals that eventually won him the nod of taking over the arduous task of franchise holder of the Ms.Jamaica World Cornwall pageant. All five of those girls made it to the top ten, and two in the top five.

Mr. Ramchandani’s knowledge and remarkable taste of pageant materials soon qualified him for the position of chief judge on any beauty queen panel. His service was soon sought everywhere including Ms. Jamaica World Middlesex, Ms. Sandals Beaches Negril, Ms. Wyndham, Ms. Community College and the National Festival Queen (1998 and 1999). The annual prestigious Ms. City of Montego Bay pageant was running into all sorts of problems in the year 1996 thus prompting then mayor Mr. Arthur Gilchrist to ask Mr. Ramchandani to take over the reigns of the event. The success, hype, pomp and ceremony which accorded the event that year was so highlighted that even the organizers of Ms. Caribbean Queen international provided a contract for Mr. Ramchandani. By this time, Mr. Ramchandani had resigned from all pageants because he cited that he needed to put more time into his personal business affairs.

The absence of Mr. Ramchandani from this scene was so obvious. His successors found the going pretty hectic and uninspiring. The event was also losing its prestige and by the year 1998 Mr. Mickey Haughton-James saw it fit to plead to Mr. Ramchandani to reconsider his departure from Ms. Jamaica World Cornwall. Mr. Ramchandani had no difficulty in redefining the contractual arrangement en route to being put back in charge of the operation.

In 1999, Mayor Hugh Solomon asked him to bring back the staging of the Ms. City of Montego Bay which was abandoned for two years owing to an unfortunate incident. This he did as well.

However, by the following year, Mr. Ramchandani once more resigned from all major franchises. And was probably expected, knocks could be heard pounding on his door (so to speak) once more as the organizers and city fathers got together to have the great man restored on the throne. The truth is, Mr. Ramchandani actually takes the guess-work and constraint out of staging a major pageant. It is now history that the 2001 staging of Ms. Jamaica-World Cornwall was a success story.

By the year 2001, Mr. Ramchandani’s heart was reaching out for the AIDS victims in Montego Bay who were being taken care of by the Good Shepherd Foundation which ran the only hospice in the city. As a condition for the staging of the Ms. Jamaica-World Cornwall pageant in 2002, Mr. Ramchandani made the Good Shepherd Foundation the beneficiary of the event. As a result, Mr. Ramchandani had to work overtime most times to ensure that the event enjoyed a greater margin of success if the Good Shepherd Foundation were to receive anything meaningful.

One million dollars was the amount which the foundation was able to carry to the bank. Five hundred thousand dollars came from Digicel; another $112,000 came from gate receipts; while the other $138,000came from Mr. Ramchandani’s business account. The year 2003 found Mr. Ramchandani for the third time in a resignation mood. But as always, he has been asked to stay on by Mr. Kingsley Cooper CEO for Pulse, who wants him to take over the franchise of Ms. Jamaica Universe Cornwall.

Ms. Global became inevitable after several non-commonwealth nations expressed their appreciation for the Ms. Commonwealth pageant in 2004which was won by Christiana Marzec of Canada. The pressure then came upon Mr.Ramchandani to involve the non-Commonwealth nations for the next event, hence Miss Global. There was no contest last year because Mr.Ramchandani was shouldered with the burdensome task of involving the non-Commonwealth nations at short notice. Instead of going for a hastily put-together international show which could have resulted in haphazardness, Mr. Ramchandani opted for an additional year which would ensure that the event retain its international appeal and splendid review from global quarters.

The countries which participated in the inaugural staging of Ms. Commonwealth Pageant were from all over the World. This year he will be celebrating the 13th anniversary of Miss Global International which he has helped boost the tourist industry by bringing Directors, contestant, family members, patrons and international media from all over the world.

Mr. Ramchandani has moved the show to Trinidad & Tobago in 2015 and to Dominican Republic in 2016 to showcase the beauties abroad in different countries just like Miss World to gain international recognition and to market our Tourist industry and has moved back the show to Jamaica in 2017 to be staged from September 6th – 10th at Hotel RIU, Montego Bay.

Mr. Ramchandani is also the pioneer in building the first Shopping Mall in Ironshore which have a pharmacy,duty free stores, gift shops, digicel store, laundry ,restaurants, hair products, beauty salon, food court gift supermarket etc. existing for 25 years and also in bringing the first ever international show ever hosted in Jamaica SINCE 2004.

Mr. Ramchandani can be called on to assist in whatever project or cause as he is always willing to help others and this year will be special as he will celebrating three special anniversaries

1. His 50th anniversary of arrival in Jamaica

2. His 42nd wedding anniversary

3. Blue Diamond Shopping Mall 25th anniversary.

He is proud to call Jamaica home and will continue all he can to assist in selling brand Jamaica to boost the economy and provide income to the wider community.