Report by: Koni Prakash Naik, Muscat
Photographs:  Sunil Salian and Naveen Kotian                                     
                                            
Muscat, Apr 17: Muscat Mogaveers had a family get-to-gether recently at the India House, Ruwi.  It was a day filled with fun and frolic, music and dance, games and quiz etc. The day came to an end with a game of tambola. As many as 200 Mogaveeras residing in Muscat, Oman, attended the party with community feeling and enthusiasm.  In order to keep the crowd at high energy levels throughout the day a Mangalorean-style breakfast and a sumptuous lunch was served.  Special attraction in the menu was Mel Meen (skilfish) and Mota Chaval (boiled rice).

It was planned, formulated and organized by the executive committee members of Muscat Mogaveers, namely, Dr Shekar Salian, P Y Kotian, Prakash Naik, Harish Kotian, Naveen Kotian, Ramanand Kunder, Tharanath Kotian, Yuvaraj Salian, Sudhakar Karkera, Ashok Kotian and Ravi Kanchan.

To start with, Prakash Naik, Ashok Kotian, Amita Kotian, Praveen Suvarna, Divya Ashok Kotian, Deepit Tharanath Kotian and Chaitra Ashok Kotian presented a melodious and soulful prayer song “Itni Shakti Hame Dena Daata”.

The session began with the welcome speech by one of the senior founder members of Muscat Mogaveers, Shekar Salian, a well-known physician and a community leader in Muscat.  P Y Kotian, the convener of Muscat Mogaveers, conducted the further proceedings and briefed the members about committee’s aims and objectives. 

In his speech, Kotian briefly mentioned about the origin of Mogaveera community in the coastal area.  He further added that although Mogaveera community were originally dependent on fishing for their livelihood, over a period of time, the community has not only grown in leaps and bounds but also has entered into all walks of life, be it education, medical, engineering, construction, contracting, business, hotel industry, politics etc bringing great laurels to the community in the region. Muscat Mogaveers objectives are not just meeting and greeting, fun and frolic, but include various community welfare activities, such as supporting the community people in need of financial help, extending medical help to needy community people in Muscat and back in India, recognizing the talents of the community children in various fields and suitably felicitate them, supporting the community people in finding employment opportunities, helping the Mogaveera boys and girls in matrimonial alliance, to name a few.  After the group discussion, new members were asked to give a short introduction about themselves.  

Members’ views and suggestions were also sought about future plans. Some new members, namely, Sunil Salian, Sujatha Lokesh Kunder, Anita Kotian, Amitha Kotian, Vatsala Naik and Naina Ramesh were inducted into the executive committee.

It was then Prakash Naik’s turn to trigger the entertainment session. Naik very efficiently and meticulously handled the rest of the programme and did a commendable job by keeping the crowd entertained throughout the day, with the able assistance of Ramanand Kunder, Tharanath Kotian, Ashok Kotian, Naveen Kotian and Ravi Kanchan, The entire day was filled with various fun and exciting games like building Qutub Minar and memory test for children, quiz for all, ‘Honey I Love You’ game for couples, bursting the balloon for bachelors, Interesting spot games (expect the unexpected) were conducted and attractive prizes were presented to the winners.   Unscrambling the words turned out to be a really mind-boggling exercise for the audience who kept scratching their heads for the right answers.  The elderly parents who attended the function were duly honoured by inviting them for prize distribution.  

Prize winners were:

Building Qutb Minar: I Prize: Simran Kotian, II Prize:Akanksha Ranjan

Memory Test: I Prize Chitra Kotian, II Prize: Rajathasri Uvaraj Salian

Bursting the Baloon: I Prize: Shailesh, II Prize: Govind Kanchan

Honey I Love You: I Prize: Mr. & Mrs. Manoj Puthran, II Prize: Mr. & Mrs. Navin Kanchan

Unsrambling the Words: I Prize II Prize: Shesha Kanchan & Lokanath Puthran

                                          II Prize: Shridhar Puthran Kulai &  Shalini B Mendon

In between the different games, Amita Kotian and Divya Ashok Kotian entertained the crowd by rendering a couple of Kannada and Hindi songs in their melodious voice, forcing the people to ask for “encore”.

Shashidar Suratkal and Sudhakar Karkera, representing Mogaveers UAE came all the way from Dubai to join the function.  As a nice gesture, UAE Mogaveers' Committee presented a memento to Muscat Mogaveers' Committee and invited all the community members to join the future functions of UAE Mogaveers in UAE.