Media Release

Doha, Mar 29: Tulu Koota Qatar, a non-profit social community association affiliated to Indian Cultural Center under the aegis of Embassy of India is all set to celebrate the completion of 15 eventful years with "Permeda Padinain" on April 10 at Delhi Public School, Al-Wakra.

The event will commence at 3 pm with "Gana Vaibhava" by the renowned playback singer Ajay Warrier ,which will be followed by the first part of "Kadekodi Comedy" by the popular trio Navin Padil, Saikrishna and Vismaya Vinayak.

"Sahithya Sambrama Santhoshadottugu Sandeshala", a special programme by Vittal Nayak and troupe which has been appreciated at many places, will be presented in between, said Tulu Koota president Ravi shetty here to Daijiworld.

"Tulu Koota has tried its best to present the best talents from Tulunadu to entertain the audience while conveying a social message. Tulu Koota Qatar will be presenting the prestigious awards "Tulunadu Bolpu" for the first time to outstanding achievers from Tulunadu, namely Padmashree Dr B R Shetty, Yenepoya Abdulla Kunhi and Ronald Colaco.

In addition, the forum will also felicitate its dedicated members for their outstanding contributions during the past many years along with its successful ladies throwball team, men’s Kabaddi team and children for their brilliant performances in academics and sports.

Tickets for the programme are available on reasonable prices at the following venues:

• Maza Restaurant-Opposite Old Airport, Aalishan Restaurant – Muntazha, Welcome Dine Restaurant behind Sana, Royal Udupi Restaurant - Doha Jadeed, Maharaja Restaurant, ATS office near Aalishan restaurant in Muntazha
• Contact-Zainuddin-30681180, Star Textiles in Al Athiya Market in Industrial Area
• Contact: Sreejith-55694834
• Sailiya: Contact - Sandeep Rai-74491339/Sathish Poonja-74491337,
• Al-Khor- Pratheesh-55829028, Industrial Area - Abdulla Monu-55548140
• Mesaieed- Contact-55831957, Kiran Anand-55947453, Asmath Ali-55846902, Kevin -55658700

Tulu Koota's 15-year journey

Tuluvas hail from a blend of agricultural, fishing and business backgrounds and have a strong vein of entrepreneurship, and keeping this streak they have spread across the globe in large numbers reaching the zenith in different fields. State of Qatar is also one such destination where increasingly over the years Tuluvas have reached out to realize their dreams and achieved success, leaving a lasting mark on the land of Qatar.

With the increasing numbers, the community also felt the need to form a larger structured forum to socialize and feel at home. Thus was born Tulu Koota Qatar in the year 1999 with a colorful ceremony at Old ICC premises, graced by the then Indian Ambassador to Qatar R L Narayanan.

The main objective of Tulu Koota is to develop togetherness with feeling of security among the Tuluvas residing in Qatar and provide recreation to the members in the midst of their hectic work and home life in Qatar. This platform became crucial as it also acted as a support system to the Tuluvas in their critical life situations.

Its existence itself provided comfort to lot of new members arriving to the State of Qatar as it acted as a strong social support to the old as well as the new members who look to begin a new life in Qatar. The social support and with the pleasure of being able to talk in mother tongue Tulu provided psycho-social support and in turn gave an emotional assurance that they were still connected with the identity rooted to Tulunadu.

Under the umbrella of Tulu Koota Qatar, Tuluvas started to meet in small numbers to formalize plans for social-cultural activities including welfare activities of not only Tuluvas but also others in need in Qatar and India. This also gave opportunity to artistes from Tulunadu to perform in Qatar and gain international exposure and keep the cultural vein to Tulunadu alive.

This was done with a conscious view of keeping the young generation informed of the unique culture of Tulunadu. For example during the tenth anniversary celebrations Yakshagana, a unique art form of Tulunadu, was presented. Tulu Koota gave ample opportunity to its community members to showcase their talent by participating in various cultural and sports events held at regular intervals. These events also provided a break to Tuluvas from their hectic work and home schedules. Entertainment and fun was part of all events organized by the various committees of Tulu Koota, be it sports events, picnics and other socio-cultural programmes.

The admirable point was that even though the focus was on organizing socio-cultural activities for Tulu community in Qatar, noble gestures were extended to other fellow Indians and other nationalities, without discrimination, for example the blood donations campaign in Hamad medical hospital for the record second time in one year and consecutively every year along with medical camps.

Tulu Koota networked further to collaborate with ICBF, registered body for welfare under the Indian embassy to render support to fellow Indians in need. Looking at the need of the hour, assistance was also extended to Tuluvas from Tulunadu as that was an opportunity for Tulu Koota to give back to the motherland. Over the last 15 years, Tulu Koota took up several humanitarian and noble causes in Qatar and India, including generous donation of funds towards Gujarat earthquake victims.

Tulu Koota is also proud to state that it is the only association in Gulf which took the lead to put pressure on the Indian civil aviation authorities to upgrade Mangaluru domestic airport to international standards.

Tulu Koota also organized a grand sports meet at MES ground in which majority of Tulu community people participated. Several cultural activities such as talent show, drawing competition, Tulu Parba, cine dance competition, picnics and other activities culminated with the grand celebration of the first annual day.

From the founding members who sowed the seeds of Tulu Koota, a new committee took over for the term 2002-2004. General activities included cooking contest, seminar on health awareness, food festival, cleaning campaign, felicitation to former civil aviation minister C M Ibrahim, blood donation campaign felicitation to Soundarya Kannada film actress, children's orchestra for charity cause, felicitation to Upendra Bhat and many more activities towards humanitarian causes were done during this committee tenure. Sports, picnics, skit performances on Republic Day and Independence Day celebrations, talent search, musical bonanza by Divya Raghavan and Ajay Warrier were conducted. The term of this committee ended with a grand celebration of the Annual Day with Tulu drama “Asalu Moorthilu” directed by Vijay Kumar Kodialbail and release of 'Nirel' second edition at Doha Cinema.

A new committee was formed for the next term of 2004-2006. General activities included Yoga demonstration by Raghavendra Pai, blood donation campaign, medical awareness campaign, farewell to Chandrashekar Herle and welcome party to M G Sudhir Kini, general nanagers of National Exchange, felicitation to Bannanje Govindacharya and seminar on history, culture and tradition of Karnataka, cleaning campaign, and food festival. Tulu Koota also assisted deserving people who approached for financial and medical expenses. The greatest achievement of this term was winning ladies throwball tournament organized by MCC for the first time. Cultural events included skit presentation, musical orchestra and grand finale to all the activities in the form Annual Day with 'Ganguna Gammath' Tulu drama directed by Naveen D Padil and also release of 3rd edition of souvenir 'Nirel'.

Then it was the turn of the new committee for the period 2006 to 2008. General activities started off with a social service cause of blood donation, food festival, several of the community members were financially supported based on the appeals for special needs and also contributed to ICBF. Cultural activities included presentation of cultural items during the Independence and Republic Day events organized by ICC, and picnic. This term again ended with a grand Annual Day with a mega Tulu Drama “Devere Nadapaver” by Devdas Kapikad and release of 4th edition of souvenir 'Nirel'.

The next committee took over with enthusiasm for the term 2008 to 2010 with Ravi Shetty as the president. The new committee celebrated the 10th anniversary in a grand way. Tulu Koota presented Yakshagana, a traditional art dance drama form, during this milestone celebration. During this phase of decennial celebration Tulu Koota Qatar organised for the first time a Kabaddi tournament in Qatar for the expatriate associations. A record number of new members were enrolled during this period. In the sports front Tulu Koota ladies throwball team captained by Shobha R Shetty won MCC throwball tournament for the third time and the team has also participated and emerged runner up in Kudlothsava 2009 in Bahrain. Tulu Koota cricket team captained by Asmath Ali participated in many tournaments and won many prizes. Apart from organizing sports and cultural programmes, the forum continued extending its helping hand in response to genuine appeals received from Tulunadu, ICBF and also organized blood donation campaign and so on.

New committee for 2010-2012 was elected unanimously. Major events organised during this period were "Atilda Birsadige" ,"Parbada Darbar" ,"Tulu Parba" and finally the Annual Day. Dr Shanthram Shetty, vice-chancellor of Nitte University and Vasanthi Shantharam Shetty were the special guests for Tulu Parba. Justice N Santhosh Hegde, former judge of Supreme Court of India and others graced the Annual day. Tulu Koota received awards from ICBF and Hamad hospital for its continued support to noble causes. Tulu Koota ladies throwball team won the MCC annual throwball tournament thus setting a record of winning the prestigious trophy 5 times out of 10 editions.

Tulu Koota's new committee for the term 2012-2014 presented a few creative events. Quiz and spelling bee competitions added an extra feather to its cap of success. Tulu Koota presented an exceptional patriotic skit "Value of National Flag' during ICC's Independence day celebration. Dance drama "Jeevanadi Kauveri' and 'Sthree Shakthi' performed during Karnataka Rajyothsava by Karnataka Sangha Qatar, stole the hearts of the audience. Cultural events culminated with 'Tulu Parba" on the eve of the annual day 2013 in which "Janapada Dibbana' was the main attraction, apart from the exceptional drama 'Julie My Darling' by Tulu Koota inhouse talents. Prof Dr B A Viveka Rai, former vice-chancellor of Hampi University graced the occasion as the chief guest.

The new committee for the term 2014-2016 in its short span has been able to achieve many milestones. Tulu Koota was honored with the top prize in an environment campaign competition organized by the ICC /Indian embassy and ministry of environment, Qatar. Tulu Koota was also applauded for taking the campaign international during the campaign period.Tulu Koota provided the complete logistic and volunteer support for the biggest medical camp organised by ICBF for the labourers and the needy. Tulu Koota was able to bag first place in the kabbadi tournament organized by ICC and won the annual kabaddi tournament organized by Tulu Koota Qatar. Tulu Koota also filicitated Kayyar Kinhanna Rai, an Indian independence activist on the occasion of his centenary birthday. It also associated with ICBF in the biggest medical camp with more than 60 volunteers working selflessly with utmost dedication.

Special needs and humanitarian causes

Since the inception of Tulu Koota Qatar, it has been one of the main objectives of the forum to dedicate our services not only for social-cultural activities but also towards special needs and help for the needy Tuluvas in Qatar and also back in Tulu Nadu.

Tulu Koota has succeeded in addressing positively to every appeal it has received from Tulu community members through direct contribution in kind and moral support to the less fortunate irrespective of cast/creed or religion, and based on verification of the merit and genuineness. Over the years, the association has assisted over 50 needy individuals/families and given them a new lease of life, apart from donating to various humanitarian causes like helping flood victims in Karnataka and Bihar, donating to ashrams and homes for the underprivileged, and much more.