Report by DivyaD'souza 

Pictures by Brazil Gomes

London, Nov 18 : Konkani Kutam London (KKL) organized “Kutmantlim Taram” – Stars of the family a cultural event collating the members of various associations and groups all over the United Kingdom. This event was held on Sunday 16th of November 2014 at the Annunciation Church, Edgware, London. The Objective of this event was to inspire the younger children to develop their love towards their mother tongue, to identify the incipient aptitudes in Konkani, to gather every Konkani speaking family along with Konkani associations and groups as one family in the UK and work with them hand in hand.

This event commenced with a prayer led by Fr. Agnel D'souza. Stany Mendonca and Sandhya D'souza, the master of ceremony of the entire event, gave a brief exordium about the activities of the day to the audience. Raj Francis Pereira, president of KKL welcomed the guests and the participants who came from distant places from all over the UK. Soon after this, the event was inaugurated by lighting of the lamp by Fr. AgnelD'souza, renowned businessman and patron of Konkani language Richard Lobo, John Fernandes, the president of MUKA along with AncitaD'souza who represented KCAUK, Melvin Rodrigues on behalf of the progenitor of KKL Glen D'souza along with Raj Francis Pereira, President of KKL and Charles D'souza with StanyMendonca.

After lighting the lamp Keith Lobo, son of Richard and Christine Lobo of London was felicitated by Fr. AgnelD'souza. Keith Lobo is the first Mangalorean to win the prestigious English Asian Business Award for the year 2014 in UK. He won the award on 29th of September 2014 at the Mercure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel in Manchester. Keith, thanked KKL for accolading his success and exalted his parents for making him capable of achieving this award.

As the felicitation ceremony concluded Stan and Sandhya introduced the judges to the audiance and invited the participants to take part in the competition. The competitions were segregated in to three different age groups. Age group one who were below seven years of age, age group two were above seven years and below twelve years of age and age group three were above twelve years and below eighteen years of age. Twenty eight children all over the UK took part in this competition. The children of age group one took part in singing and fancy dress competition. The rest of the age groups participated in singing and dance competition. There were discrete competitions held for boys and girls.

The children's competitions came to an end during the first half of the day and the delectable lunch was ready to be served to the guests. Fr. Prakash D'souza the principal of St. Joseph's College Mangalore who was present here on this occasion, blessed the meals. Whilst the lunch was being served to the guest volunteers came forward to cheer the day further and regale the audience with their multi-talented aptitudes. The melodious voice of Mangalore Ansuya Gomes and AncitaD'souza also joined to the regale the audience. Raffle tickets were sold to check who were the lucky five people amongst the audience.

After the lunch, the group activity which included adult participants perpetuated the competition demonstrating their aptitudes to the audience. Six groups took part in this competition. More than 40 participants took part in this category. Mangalorean United Konkans Association, London Prayer Group, St. Patrick's Prayer Group London, Little Angels Group London, Konkani Community Association Manchester and Konkani Kutaam London took part in this competition. Each group was expected to have a MC who would introduce the agenda of their respective teams to the audience. Each team were expected to perform a minimum of two activities according to the rules namely singing, dance and the skit competition. All the groups demonstrated a qualitative performance which increased the curiosity as to which group would win this competition.

As the group activities came to an end raffle ticket draws were picked out and Rachna Tiwari, Justine Rodrigues, GracyMenezes, CiprianD'souza, from London and Reena Rodrigues from Manchester proved to be the fortuitous people of the day who won the prizes in the raffle draw.

Helen Augustine, thanked God Almighty for making this event a grand triumph and also each and every guest for their support and encouragement in making this event a memorable one. She accoladed Glen D'souza the founder of this association who was the main pillar of inspiration in coalescing everyone in London and establishing the Association KKL. Melvin Rodrigues for his thankless effort in organizing this event. Raj Francis Pereira for creating such an event and making it transpire for first time in the history of United Kingdom. She also thanked all the members of the KKL committee for their perpetual strenuous exertion in making this event prosperous one.

Helen, perpetuated to thank StanyMendonca and Sandhya D'souza for their vibrant MC, Fr. Prakash D'souza for gracing this occasion, and the judges Fr. Angel D'souza, Reena Peter and Rhea Williams. Tony Augustine for his video-graphy and Brazil Gomes for his photography. Alwyn Saldhana for being an auxiliary mentor to the children and playing music for them and Perfect 4 occasions for the entire embellishment of the dias. Francis Chicko for the music and DJ, Cannon Collions for providing KKL with the church auditorium, Santosh Johnson D'souza, Apoline Vas, Charles D'souza, and CeaserFernandes for providing support behind this event, Chef Hassan, Kishore and Shaffiq for preparing delicious lunch, Rohit and his friends from Mangalore for their involvement and support in making this event a memorable one.

She also thanked the sponsors and the backbone of this competition Richard Lobo and family, Glen D'souza, Tony Augustine and family, Melvin Rodrigues and family, Mathilda D'souza and family, Santhosh D'souza and family, Raj Francis Pereira and family, Apoline Vas and family, Lloyd Desa and family, Sapna Rice, Chickoo rice , Soul Tree Wines, Gopal and Staff, Khosla Wines, Wanis Food, and Cobra Beer for their empathy and benevolent contribution.

Momentos were given only for the children who took part in this competition to commemorate this day. These were given by Lloyd D'sa, Mathilda D'souza, Melvin Rodrigues, DivyaD'souza, PrecillaFernandes and Sandhya D'souza.

Prizes were distributed to the winners. Among the age group one, the prizes for the fancy dress competition among girls were won by Annika Pinto (First) Ashlyn Crasta (second) and DiyonaD'souza (third) prize. Among the boys AlroySequeira (First), Jude Williams (Second) and Rishon Fabian Pereira won the third prizes. In singing under the same age group first prize was victoriously triumphed by AureaRego and the second was by ShanelleMendonca. There was no third prize as there were no participants under this age group.

Under the age group two there were only two participants who had enrolled for singing only. Among the girls first place in singing was won by Priyanka D'souza, second by AverilAlvares and third by Giselle Pereira. GlestonMendonca was the only male participant who participated in singing competition in the same age group. He was given consolation first prize.

Under the age group three, there were singing and dance competition. SonalMendonca won the first place, Melanie Rodrigues the second, and FrivaMontheiro won the third among the girls. Under the male participant Raul Franklin Pereira was the only male participant who participated in singing. He was given consolation third prize. In dancing under this age group AnuskaFernandes was the only participant and she was given the consolation second prize. The consolation prizes first, second and third were given according to the scores which were achieved the respective participants.

Among the six group participants the first place was won by MUKA, second was won by KKL and third was victoriously triumphed by Prayer group London. These prizes were given by Christine Lobo, Richard Lobo, Rita Williams, Flossy Fernandes, Tony Augustine, Lainet Pinto, Reshma Lobo and Reena Peter.

The best MC prize was won by John Fernandes, the president of MUKA. This was given by Fr. AgnelD'souza and the rolling shield for the year 2014 was won by best team none other than the true Konkani patrons Mangaloreans United Konkans Association Nottingham.

The event concluded with the distribution of the rolling shield given by Fr. Prakash D'souza of Mangalore.

the next “KutmantlimTaram” competition is scheduled on Sunday 27th August 2016 as KKL has arranged Wilfynite event on July 4th 2015.

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