Report : Ophelia Lazarus
Pics : Arun Jivraj Lobo
Muscat, Dec 12: To usher in the festive season of Christmas the Mangalorean Catholic Community of the Parish (MCCP) organized 'Nathalanso Dabazo' at the Al Bhaja Hall in Qurum on the December 6.
The event was attended by over 450 people who were treated to some scintillating music by Monica Valdar and Thushara Kuruvitage two versatile and talented artistes who were flown in specially from Dubai along with the local talents within the community.
The event started off at 6:15 pm with two enterprising comperes Suraj Rebello and Astrin D’silva inviting the president of the MCCP - Lancy Lobo on stage along with the executive committee members. Alwin Pinto community service secretary led the gathering in prayer seeking the blessings of Almighty for the event.
The traditional Christmas cake was cut by the president and the EC committee.
The feeling of Christmas was felt around with the sweet singing of Christmas Carols led by Melanie Crasta and group.
A beautiful tableau enacting the birth of Jesus was enacted by Wilfred Castelino, Flavia Castelino, Neil Castelino, Gail Castelino, Auraltina Rodrigues, Walter Mendonca, Walter Pinto and Nixon Lobo supported by Sunil D’souza and Cyril Britto. The highlight of the tableau was the kings following the moving star to find baby Jesus.
The children were all excited the moment they heard the ‘Jingle bells’ playing as they knew who was round the corner and went looking for him. Santa Claus (enacted by Edward Mendonca ) had a grand entry jingling the bells and swinging his bag full of sweets to the delight of the children who ran all around him and he distributed sweets to all the children present.
With the traditional part being done with, Suraj and Astrin in turns moved on to the entertainment part of the programme.
Suraj introduced Monica Valdar who is a well know singer and has a list of accomplishments to her name. She hails from Loretto – Bantwal. She can sing in different languages and genres. She is well known in Arabian Gulf Indian and Sri Lankan community as an entertaining singer. She can sing in Konkani, which is her mother-tongue, English, Hindi, Kannada, Sinhalese, Swahili, Italian, French, German, Spanish as she is a multi lingual singer.
She has performed in the musical programs of various eminent artistes like Henry Dsouza, Melwin Peris and under the guidance of Eric Ozario etc. Master’s Degree holder Monica, works as a 'Business Associate' for a British company in Dubai and besides her regular routine office work, she is helping the budding and aspiring singers of the UAE by providing them a platform to sing through her TV program ‘desert flowers’ telecasted in Namma TV. The videos of these performances can be found on U-Tube & Facebook. The list of Monica’s achievements could go on and on. In short Monica is a colorful person blessed with lots of talents along with simplicity.
Monica was felicitated with a shawl, a basket of fruits and a memento by president Lancy Lobo and vice presidents finance and sport Ophelia Lazarus and vice president cultural Nancy Vaz.
Tushara was introduced by Astrin - Born on 11/3/1971 in Galle-Sri Lanka to a welknown Judge at the Sri Lankan Court of Justice and a Music Director, Late Chandrapala Kuruvitage (Father) & a Teacher ( Now Retired) Nada Kuruvitage ( Mother), Thushara started off his music career at a very young age.
At the age of six he was selected as a child singer and graded “A” at the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation,
In 1987 he competed in All Sri Lanka Inter School Instrument Competition - Category Tabla, which is considered as Indian musical Instrument and won 2nd Place
In 1988 competed in All Sri Lanka Youth Talent Contest in Category Guitar and won 1st Place
In 1988, at the age of 17, he started his music career as a guitarist in a popular Sri Lankan Band “ZODIAC” and within a short period he changed as their keyboard player.
In 1994 while playing in the band he was the assistant recording engineer at RR studio Sri Lanka.
In 1996 he became the main audio engineer in this studio and handled recordings of all popular artists in Sri Lanka.
Also worked part time in most advertising companies as music director for their advertisement jingles and also directed a few TV commercials.
He has been a Music Director for tele dramas, stage dramas and a musician for movies.
In 1997 he started on his own as a solo keyboardist introducing a new technology to the Sri Lankan music industry.
In 1998 released his debut non-stop album with many top Sri Lankan artists, and a music video which became very popular and introduced the fusion of techno music with Sri Lankan song.
Thereafter he traveled to many countries as a solo keyboardist providing back up music for many popular artists.
He has had contract performances at different venues in many countries.
He plays in 13 muscial Instruments & so far has sung in 10 Languages. He has already won the hearts of many with his ability as a Professional Compere (MC), Singer, Joker and a Stage Drama Artist.
He also worked as presenter of music progremmes on Sri lankan Satellite Channel “Sri TV” based in Italy and presently with “Channel 1”, a Sri Lankan based TV Channel.
He is very famous within his community around the Globe as the anchor and conductor of “Saharawe Tharu”, a live TV singing talent programme made for the Sri Lankans, giving common people to prove their talents. Recognizing these efforts, Sri Lankan Community in Kuwait honoured Thushara with ‘People Award” in December 2012
His main areas of expertise like in electric guitar (particularly blues, jazz, rock and folk), analogue recording, computer based music, music technology, music theory (particularly jazz and popular music theory) and writing music for a variety of ensemble. He has always played a pre-dominant role in each of these ensembles both as the front man, singing, playing guitar, key boardist and as a prolific songwriter/composer.
He has his own recording studios in Dubai named after him, "TK Studio", where he does professional recording and processing of his passion, Music.
This multi-talented young Musician simply has no bounds and has promising future. He says during his recent trip to mangalore, he felt home at mangalore and its people. Mangaloreans simply accepted him as if their own and appreciated his work. He is grateful to them, he says.
He wants to give more emphasis towards Konkani Musical activities and soon we will be seeing him more often in our Konkani events.
He says devotion to the passion along with hard work can bring the best out of you and that is what he has preached and practiced in life.
Tushara was also felicitated with a shawl, a basket of fruits and a memento by President Lancy Lobo and Vice Presidents Finance and Sport Ophelia Lazarus and Vice President Cultural Nancy Vaz.
The President and the EC Committee left the stage, cake and snacks were served to the gathering.
After the felicitations Monica and Tushara took over and sang some lovely numbers to get the couples on the dance floor.
With the crowd warming up to the music the next session was lit up with the melodious voice of Gulf Voice winner 2012 Reena Dsouza singng “Korun Kantharean”. After Reena came the emerging rock star of MCCP Jonathan Bennett singing “Casablanca”. All the jiving couples were on the floor with Astrin Dsilva singing Stupid Cupid.
After a good dancing session letting everyone take a break “Nathalancho Khel” was performed with a lot of gaiety. The performers were Sunil D’souza, Shanthi D’souza, Shavin D’souza, Wilson Lobo, Meena Lobo, Melwyn Lobo, Nixon Lobo, Sylvan Lobo, Naveen Sequiera, Cyril Britto, Sharon Alva, Pradeep Sequiera, Rakesh Coelho, Shailesh Cutinho.
The next session started with a balloon dance for couples. While the couples were trying their best not to drop the ballons Apollonaris D’souza sang “Dhonn Kalzan” which had the couples lost in his singing. Zeena Pereira sang “Swapnath”. Then came Zino with his powerful voice singing “Suzanna”. Another well-known singer in the singing circles of MCCP Victoria Soares sang Kogul.
Monica and Tushara were once again on stage singing “Mai Muntha”. IF there was one duo that brought the crowd alive it was Joachim D’souza and Dilip Correa singing “Ami Dogi Sezara” the crowd thoroughly enjoyed their singing and were asking for more. Monica then came and sang a Srilankan number “Gayagi”.
To get the kids also involved, a game was organized for them “Nathalanso dabazo” which they quite enjoyed.
A dancing session for the youth with songs sung by the youth was regaling. We had Jonathan leading with ‘Let her go’ followed by Lenita singing ‘Hey Yo’. Melanie sang ‘MLT’ followed by Sachin singing “Tunch Moga”.Brian sang ‘Kedna” and Jonothan ended the session with “Angel Eyes”.
A game was organized for the youth where they had to keep a chakli on their forehead and only by moving their facial muscles had to bring the chakli to their mouth. It was quite a treat to watch them achieving that feat.
Another session of non-stop dancing started with Loveline & Ajit singing ‘Oh Maria”. Zino took the crowd by storm with his singing “Achy Breaky Heart”. Reena once again had the crowd tapping their feet with her song “Dees Radt Moga”. Anitha Lobo then sang ‘Maka Tujer mog podla” Nirmala sang ‘Eka Disa Eka”. Another duo that rendered their song beautifully were brothers Calvin and Cavin D’souza singing a nostalgic song ‘Visa”. Another rising singing star Caroline Dsouza sang “Wrecking Ball” which took the crowd by surprise with her rendition of the song.
A Baila session with all the singers joining in gave the audience non- stop dancing music which was thoroughly enjoyed by one and all.
A beautiful Christmas cake made by Reena Mathias was auctioned and Stanley Fernandes (Dattu) was the highest bidder.
A sumptuous traditional Mangalorean style dinner was served to the audience.
Each and every member and guests was given a bag of kuswar when they left could they ask for more!
A lot of hard work put in by the President and the EC Committee and the volunteers paid off with the members and the guests having the most enjoyable time.
Hats off to the President Lancy Lobo his EC team comprising of Ophelia Lazarus, Nancy Vaz, John Gonsalves, Celine D’souza, John Mathias, Stany Menezes, Reena D’souza, Clifford Castelino & Alwin Pinto.
The main sponsors of the event were Marmul Travels & Tours LLC and two well wishers. The sponsors of the event were City Seasons Hotel – Muscat (Walter Menezes), Muscat Pharmacy & Stores LLC (Anita Kalbag), National Training Institute (Lawrence Alva), Travel Point (Ms. Astrin D Silva), Rehab Hotel Apartments (Clifton Almeida), Mangalore Stores (Rajendra Shetty), Al Mudhish Chips (Brinston Noronha), Pizza Hut – Oman, Bollywood, Sea Pearls Jewellers, Country Club Vacations
MCCP’s annual sponsor for the year is Kafeef Classic Mayonnaise and the main sponsors for the year are Omantel and Technofit LLC. Co-sponsors for the year are Skyline Logistics Services (Dilip Correa) and Muscat Pharmacy & Stores LLC (Dilip Mehta).