Gulf Daily News

Bahrain, Dec 6: A FAMOUS dance troupe from the southern Indian city of Bangalore will be staging two special ballet performances during the Vishwa Kannada Samskruti Sammelana.

The World Kannada Cultural Conference, scheduled for December 15 and 16, is being hosted by Kannada Sangha, Bahrain, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Karnataka, which is home for more than 60 million Kannada-speaking people. It will be held at the Al Raja School, Manama.

Omkar Creations will be arriving in Bahrain with an eight-member troupe led by choreographer-director Suma Vijay.

The ballet on the first day of the conference is Suvarna Vaibhava, and Omkar will be staged on the second day.

Kannada Sangha, meanwhile, has named Al Hamad Construction & Development Company, Bahrain Financing Company (BFC) and Batelco as Platinum sponsors of the two-day event.

Batelco will also be giving away 123Call Cards to the first 500 visitors on the first day of the conference on December 15, according to Sangha president B Rajkumar.

"We also have eight main sponsors and three co-sponsors so far," he said. "We are still looking for a few more as the scale of the event is the biggest in the Sangha's history."

The main sponsors are Ahmed Mohammed Jassim Est, Ahmed Omer Trading & Construction Est, Almoayyed Airconditioning Contracting, ICCI/Prudential Main, Indian Airlines, National Marine Dredging, Prudential Management WLL, Ramee Group of Hotels, Gulf Gate Hotel and National Images. The co-sponsors are Al Tawkeel Building Materials, Air India, Babasons, CHAPO Bahrain, Chemmanur Jewellers and Creative Advertising.

A 70-member guest list has been finalised and some famous names attending the conference include Kannada actors Arvind Ramesh, Tara, and Radhika, TV star and singer Ravi Shankar and his singer-wife Sangeetha Shankar, music director Guru Kiran and revolutionary Kannada author S L Bhairappa.

Other noted personalities coming to Bahrain include humorists Richard Louise and Professor Krishna Gowda and singer Ratnamala Prakash.

Top spiritual leader Sri Sri Keshavananda Bharathi Swamiji of the Edneer Mutt in Kasargod, on the Karnataka-Kerala border in southern India, will be chief guest, said Mr Rajkumar.

Thirty to 60 delegates from other parts of India and abroad and more than 100 Kannadigas from neighbouring Gulf countries are expected to attended the conference