Oman Bunts Family Day – Grandeur, Fun, In Abundance
Media Release

Ruwi, Nov 30: The final event of the 23rd Oman Bunts annual gathering - The Family Day, was held on Friday November 26 at The Grand Hall, Al Falaj Hotel, Ruwi, with great pomp and fun.
 
The main entrance to the hall was adorned with festoons made of mango leaves and marigold flowers, and also a beautiful Ganapathi Rangoli surrounded with pots of floating flowers and candles. In addition, a floral decoration on the floor was also done by the lady organizers.
 
The programme started with the lighting of the lamp by Navaneeth Shetty and Rathnakar Shetty, followed by the singing of Ganesh Bhajan by the organizers. In her brief welcome address, Dr Vijayalakshmi R Shetty introduced Navneeth Shetty.
 
Navaneeth Shetty, deputy chief manager of Times of India group, Mangalore, was invited to compere the programme. He kept the crowd involved in all the activities with his witty style of presentation and excellent hold over Tulu and Kannada languages. He was ably assisted by Dr Vijayalakshmi R Shetty, who was the other anchor, with input for games from Ratnakar Shetty. Breakfast was served to all.
 

Navaneeth Shetty invited two batches of three people each from among the audience, one Tulu-speaking and the other, Kannada-speaking ( basically from Kundapur region), as there are Bunts who can speak only one of these two languages. He asked them to list out the items  related  to coconut and cow in their respective languages. Both the groups performed admirably by naming quite a few. However, the ultimate winners were the Tulu group comprising Bhaskar Shetty, Vasudev Shetty and Kishan Shetty. Kannada group comprised of Ashok Shetty, Sudakar Shetty and Naveen Shetty.
 
Announcement about the guessing game involving the task of guessing the amount of money in the plastic bottle filled with 100 baisa notes and coins, to guess the weight of a bunchy of tender coconuts and the number of bananas in a whole bunch, was made.
 
The cultural programme followed with a mix of solo, duet, group dances, songs and skits. A total of 24 performances were staged. The youngest performer at the programme was just 3½ years old Vaibhavi Shetty, who started off with her fluent Ganesha Stotra. This was followed by versatile youngsters who showcased their individual talents through various cinematic, arabic, folk and contemporary dances, starting off with Radha Shetty, Mithali Shetty, Shlagana Shetty, Shagun Shetty, Riyanika Shetty, Anshali Shetty, Akshara Shetty, Janav and Pavana, Lysha Shetty, Adarsh and Samarth, Dhanish and Bhakthi, Pratham Shetty, Shruthi and Prashasti, and  Ishwika Shetty.

There were two song performances with Karoke  by Anitha  Shetty and Vijayashri Rai. A mimicry item by Naveen Shetty proved the innate talent of the youngster. There was a musical skit – Qawali by a group of young dancers - Janav, Shagun, Anika, Disha, Sparsha, Haveesh, Ananya, Adithi, Shlagana, Dhanvith, Sai Swaroop, Shashwath, and Shrejasand Mithali. This number was choreographed by Rama Shetty. Another musical dance, ‘Radha Krishna’ was rendered by Adithi , Disha, Ananya, Nysa, Anika, Adithi, and Shlagana, with Vaibhavi donning the role of little  Krishna. Vaibhavi as baby Krishna, enthralled the audience. This was choreographed by Mithali Shetty.

Another group presented a Marathi folk dance, which was choreographed by Shruthi Shetty. Young ladies, Arpana, Poornima, Vindhya, Rashmi, Beena and Manjula, were members of this group. A group musical Mime by the quartet group of Naveen on the flute, Ujwal on the bucket tabla, Jaiprakash with the guitar and Rathnakar Shetty with the Gejje, was a beautiful piece. This item, picked from from Remo’s flute music, was a thriller which kept the crowd thoroughly engrossed and entertained. It was indeed a beautiful mime that was enacted splendidly. This was followed by ‘Yaksharanjini’ by Madhusudhan Shetty, who did a splendid job. Finally, the cultural event ended with a Kannada Folk dance, presented by Sushma, Nishitha, Anshali, Srishti, Kishan, Sudhir, Sachin and Sachin. It was a beautiful effort by all the dancers to showcase their talents.
 
After the cultural activities came to an end, a formal introduction of Navaneeth Shetty was read out by Mamatha S Shetty. Navaneeth was felicitated with a Shawl and memento by Rathnakar Shetty.
 
The release of the magazine – Oman Bunts Festival 2010 - giving insight about Bunts, rituals and Oman, was rendered by Navaneeth Shetty and all the organizers.
 
In between the cultural show, Navneeth Shetty kept the audience continuously engaged with his questions. He called upon six ladies to form two groups of three each, one speaking Tulu and another speaking Kannada, and asked them to note down the maximum number of pictures they could notice on the banner of the Bunt  Festival- 2010 placed in the backdrop of the stage. The winners were the Tulu group comprising of Sangeetha, Roopa and Lalitha. The Kannada group had Sangeetha, Pathri and Vaishali.
 
He told the audience to write down all the Bunt surnames they knew. He called upon eight people, who had noted down the maximum number of surnames on the stage, including the only lady among them, Sangeetha Shetty. The final winners were Rathnakar Shetty, Muralidhar Shetty and Nagesh Shetty. He called a few people with surnames like Rai, Ariga, Budale and of course the common Shetty, to the stage to show how quite a few of the surnames have almost vanished now. There may be more than 93 surnames, of which some are not at all in vogue now, he pointed out.
 
Soon, the games started for the gents and the ladies simultaneously. All the games had first and second prizes. Gents had to hit the wicket with a tennis ball, duly standing in bowling action. Vinay Shetty emerged as the winner of this competition. The second game was eating the biscuit, using only the facial muscles, starting from the forehead. This was conducted on the stage. The winner was Yogesh Shetty.
 
In the meanwhile, the ladies had their games in which they had to transfer marbles from one plastic cup to another, using their big toes and second toes. It started with five marbles and increased to 20 marbles for the final round. The winners were Natasha Shetty and Supriya Alva. The game lined up next was - Feel your Senses, whereby one had to feel the items in the box which had more the 29 items through a hole that allowed only one hand to be inserted, for half a minute, and then to write the items within one minute. The winner of this game was Vijayashri Rai and Dr Vidya Kishore Shetty.
 
Games were conducted for the children of all the age groups.

‘Passing the cap’ was conducted for children less than five years of age. The winners were Shloka and Vaibhavi.

The other game was ‘Picking of Maximum Chocolates’, which was conducted on the stage. The winners were Sakshi and Pradhyum.
 
The next age group for 6 to 8 years had the dart board game. The highest scorer was Janav Shetty, followed by Samarth Shetty. The other game was desert island, a musical, whereby the children had to stand on the coloured paper depicting an island, as soon as the music stopped. The winners were Rasha and Disha.
 
Basketball game for 8 to 12 years was conducted. The children had to throw the ball into the basket. The winners were Shashwath Rai and Dhanvith Shetty. The next game was ‘Passing the Tissue’ with the paper from the starting to finish line. The tissue had to be moved only with the wind without touching the tissue. It was fun to see the kids do that. The winners were Dhrithi and Chirag.
 
The last group of 12 to 18 years had to kick the ball to the goal post. Only one child could do that- Sristi Shetty. The last game was basket ball, and the only winner was Rishabh.
 
A sumptuous buffet  lunch  with a variety of vegetarian, chicken, fish, mutton, rice dishes and Kori Rotti followed with the sweetness of Gulab Jamoon and ice-cream, was served. There were also a variety of chips, biscuits, juices and water throughout the function.
 
After lunch there was a general written mixed quiz with 23 questions corresponding to the 23rd Bunts gathering. This quiz proved to be a mix up of questions regarding Bunts, November 26 the date, riddles, funny questions and questions regarding food festival.
 
Navaneeth Shetty called upon a few youngsters to demonstrate their ability to laugh in their best possible ways.
 
There was replay of ‘Pattanga’ - a chat show conducted by Navneeth Shetty on Namma TV . The topic basically was about childhood. It was interesting to hear the episodes of different people’s childhood, a few childhood songs and rhymes and calling of Balindra.
 
After lunch, there was a couple game- feeding your spouse the grapes backwards, as  the couple stood with their back against each other, and running to the finishing line. The winning couple was of Deepa and Kiran, while Sushma and Kishan stood second.
 
Evening tea/coffee with snack was served.
 
This was followed by the tug-of-war for ladies and men . The winners among ladies was Roopa Ratnakar and group, and runners up was Kavitha and group.

Among the men, winners were Kiran and group, and the runners were Uttam Rai and group. There was a surprise package of two children’s groups, who also tried their hands in tug of war.  The winners received chocolates.
 
A vote of thanks  to all those who sponsored and helped this function, was proposed by Veena S Shetty, after which there was the prize distribution of the sports day activity which was conducted earlier on October 29.

All the prizes were distributed by Bunt sponsors, seniors and also Navaneeth Shetty.

The prize distribution relating to the games organized during the day were also given. The winner of the open quiz was Ganesh shetty, with Nagesh Shetty securing the second spot.

The winner of the guessing game about the number of bananas was Surekha Shetty, for eight of the coconut,  Jayasheela Shetty, and in the the amount of money guessing game, Madhu Shetty and Vishal Shetty tied for the top spot.
 
Finally, Tambola was  conducted  by Navaneeth Shetty, the prize for the full house being an air ticket to Mumbai by Jet Airways, which was won by Vinay Shetty. Prizes were also given for each row, jaldi five, star and second full house.
 
Finally, gifts were given to all the performers of the cultural activity and mementos were handed over to all the  volunteers, who had helped in smooth conduct of the functions.
 
On behalf of the organizers a Rado watch was presented to Navaneeth Shetty by Rathnakar shetty.

The last part of the programme was the raffle draw for the ticket to Mumbai by Ethihad Airways, which was won by Anita Shetty.
 
A closing speech by Dr Vijayalakshmi R Shetty brought down the curtains to a highly successful, cheerful, splendid and joyous event.
 
All the Bunts were given a copy of the magazine and lots of give-aways, as they left the premises with a smile on their faces.
 
The people went home, fondly hoping that the legacy of the annual Oman Bunts gathering continues.

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