Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK)
Mangaluru, Jan 13: The 26th annual Sandesha Awards, instituted by Sandesha Foundation for Culture and Education were presented to seven eminent personalities in a befitting ceremony at Sandesha premises here on Friday January 13.
Sandesha Literature Award was conferred on writer Dr Kamala Hampana; Sandesha Media Award on film actor and producer Prakash Rai; Sandesha Art Award on folk singer Yuvaraj K; Konkani Music Award on Anil Patrao; Sandesha Special Recognition Award on John Devaraj; and Sandesha Education Award on Renita Lobo and Shamita Rao of Mother Teresa Memorial Education Trust.
The selection was made by a jury which consisted of Na D’Souza, Richard Louis, Dr Na Da Shetty, Eric Ozario, Chandrakala Nandavar and Sara Aboobakar.
President of Sandesha Fr Victor Vijay Lobo welcomed the gathering.
In this presidential speech, bishop of Ballari diocese Fr Henry D Souza said, "I congratulate the awardees. All the seven personalities deserve to be conferred with the Sandesha Awards for their achievements in their respective fields. Achievers are role models for young children as they look for inspiration in their dreams."
Receiving the Sandesha Award for Literature, Dr Kamala Hampana said, "It is an honour to recieve this award. At a very young age of 26, I visited Dharmastala during Sahitya Sammelana back in 1964-65, and today at the age of 82, travelling all the way to Mangaluru to recieve this award from Sandesha is an honour."
Receiving the Sandesha Media Award, actor Prakash Rai said, "It was an enthralling moment to be conferred with this special award. It is also neccesary to confer award on the farmers too as they are the backbone of the country. We need to remember and reognise their contribution too."
Acknowledging the honour, Konkani music composer Anil Patrao said, "I dedicated this award to my parents and to my guru, the late Patrick Carlo, to who I am very grateful. I also owe gratitude to the entire Christian community for their support in building my carrier in Konkani music."
Awardee K Yuvraj said, "By receiving this Award, my responsibility has increased. I thank Sandesha for honouring me. I prefer to sing folk songs because I admire folk singers as they do not sing for any benefit or name and fame." K Yuvraj also sang a beautiful folk song.
John Devraj said, "Sandesha Award is always special. Jesus and Charlie Chaplin have always been an inspiration for me to achieve something in life. I thank Sandesha for giving me this prestigious award."
Awardee Shamita Rao said, "It has been a long but successful journey. We thank Sandesha Foundation and the jury for finding us worthy of this award. This is our 18th year of journey since we started with LKG and UKG and later continued till 10th. We did not want students to go away, so we started PUC too.
"It was challenging as young women to get all the work done but students have been our motivating force. We have always wanted to bridge the gap between rural and urban education," she added.
Addressing the gathering, president of Kannada Sahitya Parishat Manu Baligar said, "Sandesha is an institution of unity where students of all religions and languages come in and get trained in the field of art and culture. Am very happy to witness this Sandesha Awards ceremony and congratulate all the awardees."
MLA J R Lobo said, "We need to remember the journey of Sandesha Foundation. Today this Foundation stands tall in the state. Sandesha Award has always been a prestigious award and Sandesha Foundation has always recognised eminent personalities to be worthy of this award."
Momentoes were presented to the founders of the award.
Bishop of Mangaluru diocese Aloysious Paul D'Souza, chief whip of Legislative Council Ivan D'Souza, president of Sandesha Awards jury Na D Souza, trustee Fr Ivan Pinto and others were present.
President of Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Acadamy Roy Castelino proposed the vote of thanks. Mallika Shetty compered
the programme.
The award ceremony was followed by a cultural event by Sandesha Kala Kendra and Padua College students.