Media Release
Dammam, Mar 25: Mangalore Association Saudi Arabia (MASA), an association formed to serve for noble cause, launched on October 22, 2006 with 17 like-minded members celebrated its 15th Anniversary titled ‘Gammath’ on March 16 with a grand success. The event was witnessed by over 400 packed crowd at Crystal Hall Dammam, felicitation of some key personnel, academic excellence awards for students, special achievement awards, Masa man of the year award, raffle draw, exciting and thrilling cultural events, releasing of souvenir ‘Hongirana’ were the main highlights of the evening.
Following events took place during the 15th year occasion:
1. Reading the annual report for the year 2021-2022 by general secretary
2. Academic excellence awards were given to as many as 32 students
3. Eleven Mini Carnival winners were awarded on this occasion
4. Special achievement awards were given to 8 members for their achievement in different fields
5. Distinguished service awards were given to 8 members
6. Appreciation awards were also given to 7 members for dedication and commitments
7. Prestigious award, Masa Man of the Year for the year 2021 & 20222 also awarded to Narendra Shetty and Puttaraju H respectively
8. Felicitation of two members for holding green card from Saudi government, Ibrahim Hussain and Abdul Salam of Al Raqwani Co
9. Honouring of married couple celebrating their silver jubilee wedding anniversary
10. Felicitation of Rajkumar, former president of Kannada Sangha Bahrain as recognition on receiving of Karnataka State Rajyotsava Award
11. Felicitation of founder member Ravi Karkera
12. Releasing of colorful souvenir ‘Hongirana’
13. Induction of new committee for the term 2023 and 2024
14. Raffle draw with as many as 18 attractive prizes
15. Thrilling and exciting cultural programme by masa children and adults was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience
In the beginning the members and guests were welcomed by Praveen Peter Aranha, entertainment committee head. Among the guests, Zakaria, Al Muzain Co, Mir Zaheer Baig, Scientist KFUPM, Ibrahim, CEO Al Rawani Co, Abdul Salam, Al Raqwani, Shreedhar, president Tamil Sangham, Suresh Bharati, VP Tamil Sangham, Abdul Rasheed, Ameen. Dr Shailendra Bekal, Dr Prakash, Pradeep Bahrain, Arif Jokatte and Rajkumar, ex-president, Kannada Sangha Bahrain were present.
President Sathish Kumar Bajal inaugurated the event along with Advisory Committee members Ravi Karkera, Dayanand Shriyan, Sadashiv Poojary, Narendra Shetty, Naveen Bhandary and EXCOM members, by lighting the ceremonial lamp. Annual report was presented by general secretary Ameer Hussain which included details of various events held during the year, sponsorship, achievements and noble services.
Addressing the gathering president Sathish Kumar Bajal expressed his whole hearted thanks to members for rendering dedicated services to MASA, 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 expressed his concern that when he was blessed with the mantle of the post of president of MASA, it was one of the toughest situations, not only for MASA but for the entire humanity in the COVID pandemic looming large all over the world. He said that, he always lived his life with the belief that 'Tough times never last, but tough people do'. Along with all the members of MASA, he had a big task of keeping up the momentum of our association, especially in the field of our philanthropic activities. Though we could not conduct social events, but never stopped for serving for the noble causes, as a result hundreds of needy people were served with medical aids, educational aids and financial aids, he said.
Narendra Shetty and Puttaraju upon receiving the Masa man of year awards for 2021 & 2022 respectively expressed their gratitude to president, excom and advisory committee members for their full support in carrying out their duties diligently. Both have shared their wonderful experiences and the problems they have come across while dealing in assessing and resolving issues of poor and suffering ones.
Ibrahim Hussain and Abdul Salam KSA Green Card Holders, upon their recognition expressed their happiness and assured their continued support to MASA as patrons and philanthropists.
Following silver jubilee couples were invited and honoured:
Sadashiv Poojary & Chetana Poojary
Vijay D’Sa & Volga D’Sa
Shekhar Kotian & Shahikala Kotian
Rajkumar upon his felicitation by MASA expressed his gratitude and appreciated MASA for its great services to human kind of Coastal Karnataka.
Ravi Karkera, one of the key founders thanked all MASA members, and expressed view point that main reason for the success of MASA is because of the whole-hearted support from its members through their active participation in its diversified activities, mainly contributing for the fulfillment of noble causes. He informed the audience that ‘we feel so proud to see that, those children who performed on the same stage as kids today many of them are receiving awards as Doctors, Engineers and Professionals’ which is a great and proud moment for MASA. He urged members and advised that we all can find happiness in life by helping others in whatever the way we can. The gathered guests and members were very much impressed by the powerful address by Ravi Karkera and assured their support and willingness to be part of this grand association which serves for humanitarian causes.
Earlier, award ceremony was conducted by young and energetic Prateek Poojary and Ravi Karkera. Induction Ceremony was conducted by advisory committee members Ravi Karkera and Narendra Shetty. Gopal Krishna Shetty was installed as new president along with his team of EXCOM and various other committees.
Exciting raffle draw was conducted by Naveen Bhandary, Victor Sequeira and Puttaraju. As many as 18 attractive prizes were drawn and collected by the members. Thrilling and mesmerizing Cultural events were conducted by Prateek Poojary and Shakib Ahmed. Vote of thanks were submitted by vice president Gopal Krishna Shetty.
During the event, delicious snacks and dinners were also served.
A magical and entertaining colorful event brought lots of rejoicing and memorable moments for the audience to take away home after a long period of gap due to COVID pandemic. With the singing of national anthem, the joyful ‘Gammath’, 15th Anniversary of MASA, concluded with new rays of hope and light, ‘Hongirana’.