Report by: Mohammed Nooman / Puttaraju Halappa
Dammam, Jan 6: MASA, a charitable organization formed by a handful of likeminded people with aim to help needy in 2006 turned 10 this year. MASA celebrated its 10th anniversary on Friday, 23rd December 2016 at Crystal Hall Dammam. MASA seized the moment to highlight an amazing communal harmony with the flyer aptly titled 'Santhasa' (Happiness). The seed sowed then, cared by generous donations by members have borne fruits enabling in meeting its core objective of helping large number of needy ones with an amount crossing over one crore in a short span of 10 years.
A gala night with jam packed auditorium of guests and members witnessed the exuberant celebration. The ceremony took off with welcome address by entertainment committee head Gopalkrishna Shetty.
President Narendra Shetty inaugurated the event along with guests of honour, Vishwanath Hegde, Yogeesh Poojary, Vishwanath Karkera, Kiran Upadhyaya, general secretary of Kannada Sangha Bahrain, advisory committee members Madhav Amin, Ravi Karkera, Ahmed Gulam Beary, Dayanand Shriyan and excom members, by lighting the ceremonial lamp. Annual report was presented by general secretary Vidyadhar Shetty which included details of various events held during the year, membership status, sponsorship, achievements and charity services.
Addressing the gathering, president Narendra Shetty expressed his hearty thanks to members for rendering dedicated services to MASA and sponsors for their generous support to the association. He thanked the committee for its meticulous planning and its implementation in conducting various events successfully under the professional guidance of advisory committee and dedicated teams of excom, assessment, sports, media and entertainment committees. He emphasized on the commitment of MASA in fulfilling its main objectives, serving for the noble cause and at the same time focusing on encouraging the talents among MASA members, teens and adults. The president concluded his speech wishing all members and guests a pleasant and relaxed evening.
As is its tradition, MASA honoured its deserving members with various awards for their achievements during the year 2016.
Recipients of Dedicated Service Awards: Sunil Puthran, Thripthi Viraj Shetty, Divya Manohar Amin, Bhagya Harish Poojary, Dolphy Veigas, George Fernandes, Gururaj Poojary, Lona Veigas, Malathi Mahabala Shetty, Rajesh Anchan, Prameela Sathish Poojary, Sowmya Balakrishna Shetty, Sunderdas Poojary, Suresh Suvarna, Yashraj Bajal and Wilma George Fernandes.
Recipients of Extraordinary Service Awards: Babu Kotebettu, Mohammed Nooman, Sathish Kumar Bajal, Gopalkrishna Shetty, Praveen Peter Aranha and Rekha Sathish Kumar.
Recipients of Outstanding Service Awards: Sagar Kumar of seeandsay.in and Mojith Mohan of Desert Lens.
Recipients of Special Achievement Awards: Sushmith Sadanand Poojary, Sunmeet Karkera, Fahim Abdul Khadar, Sadiqua Wahid, Prishita S Poojary, Clarin Preethika D’Souza, Prayag Chandra, Poorvi Gopal Shetty, Deanne Philip Monis, Srinidhi S Bajal, Kushi Ganesh Karkera, Shalom Riona Fernandes, Ashish Uday Sanil and Mahendra Shankar Billava.
Recipients of Academic Excellence Awards: Shraddha Sathish Kumar, Aaron J Dias, Nishma Fathima, Olivia Jean Mathias, Aishwarya Keshav, Sharon Rania Fernandes, Spoorthi Sukumar Shetty, Prathvik Nayak, Sindhu Kundapura Holla, Sahaan Sateesh Salian, Larissa Fernandes, Fahim Abdul Khadar, Prishita Sadashiva Poojary, Vinay Melrin Tellis, Poorvi Gopal Shetty, Leon Ferrao, Sheetal Sudarshan Poojary, Pramod Purushottama Pai, Arpitha Shetty, Pratheeksha S Poojary, Shreyas Dayanand Chowta, Clarin Preethika D'Souza, Manish Pradeep Kumar, Chaitanya Chandragiri, Shohna Bhaskar Kanchan, Shruby Sunil Puthran, Wisam Mohamed Wahid, Sugandhni Shankar Billava, Sunmeet Karkera and Pooja Keshav.
Recognition of couples married for over 25 years: Mahima and Sadanand Poojary, Sujatha and Sunil Puthran, Nancy and Naveen Vijay Kundapura, Prema and Uday Kumar Sanil, Sunita and Vishwanath Suvarna, Sujaya and Ravi Karkera, Gulabi and Babu Kotebettu, Hema and Naveen Shetty and Sunita and Dayanand Shriyan.
Recipients of Award for Ten Years of Continuous Performance in Cultural Activities: Smrithi Sadanand Poojary, Prishita Sadashiva Poojary and Ravi Karkera.
The following were also felicitated:
Grand sponsors Joey Fernandes, Vishwanath Hegde, Madhav Amin, Richard D’Silva, Yogeesh Poojary, Ravi Karkera, Dayanand Shriyan, Shankar Billava, Uday K. Sanil and Bros., Naveen Bhandary and Mohammed Sharif Iqbal.
Founders and advisory board members: Karunakar Salian, Madhav Amin, Ravi Karkera, Santhosh Shetty, Ahmed Gulam Beary and Dayanand Shriyan.
Pioneer members Narendra Shetty, Prakash Shetty, Gopalkrishna Shetty, Sadanand Poojary, Naveen Bhandary, Sukumar Shetty, Dayanand Chowta, Viraj Kumar Shetty, Naveen Shetty and Chittaranjan Shetty.
Raffle committee head Puttaraju and team of young children were recognized with special gifts for their excellent marketing of raffle tickets.
Award Ceremony, Souvenir Release and Entertainment
Then came the moment for which the audience were eagerly waiting for; the announcement of the prestigious award, the 'MASA Man of the Year' award. Every year this award is given for the dedication, commitment, endurance and tireless service to MASA. It was a proud and emotional moment for Vidyadhar Shetty as he humbly accepted the prestigious Man of the Year award.
Addressing the gathering, Vidyadhar Shetty thanked MASA management and excom for considering him for this honor and assured to continue his dedication and commitment toward the service to humanity.
Vidyadhar Shetty along with wife Vidya Shetty were honoured with a memento, shawl and bouquet by the president and advisory committee members. A standing ovation was given by the jam-packed crowd to the well-deserved award.
During this grand occasion, MASA also released it second souvenir 'Savi Nenapu'. The first souvenir, ‘Spandana’ was released during 5th anniversary celebration in the year 2011. MASA paved the way through this 10th anniversary to discover the diverse aspirations of the Mangalurean community. Souvenir committee chairman Ahmed Gulam Beary, advertisement committee chief Babu Kotebettu, editorial committee chief, Ravi Karkera, publishing committee head Mohammed Nooman, all souvenir committee members put in their sincere efforts in bringing out the beautiful souvenir ‘Savi Nenapu'.
The award ceremony was conducted by Ravi Karkera, Naveen Bhandary and Nayaz Kaiser while the cultural events were anchored by Sarita P Aranha, Amrit D’Souza and Nayaz Kaiser. An awesome evening unraveled sheer talent of children and adults provided mesmerizing entertainment in its entire splendor. Taking to the stage in confident strides, every individual and groups exhibited their skills in singing and dancing to popular hit tunes. Main highlight of the day was the flashback of 10 years’ programmes. The spectacular, intermodal ‘Kudla Cine Awards’ presented by Kudla Adventure group Dammam was a special attraction of the evening.
Exciting raffle draw was conducted by Victor Nobby Sequeira, Ibrahim Khadar and Puttaraju. Members and guests were happy to take home attractive prizes.
Snacks and dinner were served during the course of the programme, delicious dinner was sponsored by Uday Kumar Sanil and brothers and Snacks by Al Manafa Trading and Transport Services.
Sponsors of the event and raffle prize: Yogeesh Poojary of SASP, Vishwanath Hegde and Sadashiv Poojary of Intermodal Services, Joey Fernandes of Al Manafa Transport Services, Dayanand Shriyan, Ravi Karkera, Narendra Shetty, Khobar Friends, Praveen Shetty and Group, Sunil Puthran, SABSA, Kitty Group, Ramesh Mendon, Vishwanath Karkera Jeddah, Vincent Saldana, Ahmed Gulam Beary and Group, Ameer Hussain, Mohan and Lancy, Stany Mathias, Babu Kotebettu, Cornich Blue Cricketers and well-wishers.
New Committee
Installation of new committee for the next two years 2017 and 2018 was held after the dinner break as per the nomination by management committee, approved by the executive committee. The induction ceremony was conducted as per parliamentary procedures by well-known Toastmaster in the region DTM Vasudev Warrier, past area 60 governor. The new committee members took oath; all members pledged their support and welcomed the new committee with a round of applause and standing ovation.
New committee for 2017-2018 was installed as below:
Management Committee
President : Sadashiv Poojary
Vice-president : Naveen Bhandary
General secretary : Mohammed Nooman
Joint secretaries : Praveen Peter Aranha and Sathish Kumar Bajal
Treasurer : Babu Kotebettu
Joint treasurers : Prakash Shetty and Dayanand Chowta
Executive committee members: Vidyadhar Shetty, Gopalkrishna Shetty, Usman Hosangadi, Puttaraju Halappa, Naveen Shetty, Nagaraj Bajal and Saleem Puttur.
Advisory committee: Madhav Amin, Ravi Karkera, Dayanand Shriyan, Ahmed Gulam Beary, Narendra Shetty.
Assessment committee: Vidyadhar Shetty (head), Ameer Hussain (deputy), Naveen Bhandary, Praveen Peter Aranha, Babu Kotebettu, Sadashiv Poojary, Sadanand Poojary, Usman Hosangadi and advisory committee members.
Media committee: Puttaraju Halappa (head), Viraj Kumar Shetty(deputy), Ibrahim Khadar, Mohammed Nooman and Sunil Puthran
Internal auditors: Sachin Hegde and Shakib Ahmed.
Food committee: Usman Hosangadi (head), Sharief Karkalla (deputy).
Sports committee: Praveen Peter Aranha (head), Naveen Shetty (deputy), Ameer Hussain, Pramod Kadri, Sharief Karkala, Harish Kumar, Abdul Rahim Arkula, H Sukumar Shetty, Ashraf Noushad Polya, Bhaskar Kanchan, Nayaz Kaiser, Chandrashekar Karkera, Praveen Shetty, Riyaz Ahmed, Sandeep Shetty, Santhosh Kulal, Suresh M Jayanth, Yogeesh Poojary, Yashraj Bajal, Shankar Billava, Rajesh Anchan, Amith Shetty, Nizamuddin Abdul Samad, Santhosh J D Poojary, Sunil Shetty, Vincent Saldana and Uday Kumar Sanil.
Entertainment committee: Dayanand Chowta (head), Nagaraj Bajal (deputy), Naveen Bhandary, Chittaranjan Shetty, Edwin Martis, Ganesh Karkera, Jagjeevan Karkera, Mohidin Sheikh, Naveen Kumar Salian, Niranjan Karkera, Pradeep Kadekar, Prakash Sanil, Rajesh Shetty, Rajesh Suvarna, Rajesh Thingalaya, Roopesh Suvarna, Sandeep Bajal, Victor Sequeira, Vijay Naveen Kundapura, Abdul Khader Baikampady, Ajith Kumar, Arun D’Souza, Bharath Kumar, Nayaz Ahmed, Sathish Kumar Polali, Sudarshan Sanil and Vishwanath Suvarna.
Vote of thanks was presented by joint secretary Mohammed Nooman, followed by the Indian National Anthem.
Indeed, MASA's 10th Anniversary celebration concluded on a moving and surreal note giving a real meaning of 'Santhasa' (Happiness).