from Ronald D F D’Souza and Joe Andrade
for Daijiworld Media Network – Bahrain (GA)

Manama, Jul 4: Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari Dr Veerendra Heggade along with his wife Hemavathi Heggade visited Bahrain on Thursday July 3 evening. He is in Bahrain in connection with the Sambhrama 2008 programme to be held at the Al Raja School, Bahrain. The Heggade couple was welcomed at Bahrain Airport on arrival by the president of Kannada Sangha, Bahrain, Austin Santhosh as well as some key members of the Sangha including Sudhakar Shetty.    

The Heggade couple then visited the Kannada Sangha premises where they were given a warm rose-petal welcome by the lady members of the Club and led to the dais of the Sangha’s cultural hall where a large number of members had gathered. Padma Bhat presented Dr Heggade with a flower bouquet on the dais on behalf of the members of the Kannada Sangha.    

Austin Santosh welcomed Dr Heggade and his wife and addressed the audience and brought back the memories of this his past visit to the Sangha. Dr Heggade then addressed the gathering in Kannada and English and brought back to memory his past visit to the island and the changes he noticed in Bahrain since then.   He thanked all the members for the warm welcome he had received in Bahrain. As astrologists had predicted that this year for him would be visitations abroad, he proudly announced that Bahrain was first in his list of visits.  

Dr Heggade spoke at length on India making giant strides in the international arena and the vast developments in the Indian sub-continent benefiting the people. He mentioned that the deterring factor in the farming sector and villages was urbanization due to mass exodus of young educated villagers for better prospects in towns and elsewhere. This was depleting village culture. Dr Heggade informed that he was hence compelled to focus on improvising the villages and introduced a scheme involving 6, 50,000 village members giving them all encouragement and scope for developing the villages and its vicinity.

He stated that Mangalore is now competing with Bangalore and other towns in Karnataka to be one of the key cities in the State and it was noteworthy that NRIs are the most contributors to its all-round development.

Panduranga Bhat addressed the gathering thanking Dr Heggade and his wife for his visit to Bahrain. A D Mohan asked Dr Heggade to look into the possibility of commencing an NRI Assistance Cell particularly to assist young children to get admissions to Colleges and to promote Cultural talents like Yakshagana for NRI children.

Kudkadla Vishvanath Rai spoke on the Tulu language and its significance. He enquired whether the language could be promoted further in Dakshina Kannada.

Dr Heggade then mingled with members and their families separately for private auditions.

A celebration of Karnataka Culture, Sambhrama 2008, has been planned at the Al Raja School, Bahrain, with apart from the usual singing and dance programmes, a Yakshagana troupe will also perform. Dr Veerendra Heggade and his wife Hemavathi Heggade will be the chief guests for the occasion.