Sharjah : Rajyotsava Celebration - An Eventful Day
by Shodhan Prasad Attavar
Pics vy Sujay Bendur
Daijiworld Media Network - UAE
Sharjah, Nov 14: It was a day filled with bright light and celebration where the members of Karnataka Sangha Sharjah remember it to be a day which became a land mark in the history of their 7 years of existence in UAE.
The programme as scheduled was held at the premises of Asian Palace Hotel, Ajman and started sharp at 11.30 am with lighting the lamp by Saritha Nithyanand, Manjula Ganesh Rai, Paarija Anand Bailoor, Smitha Sujay & Rajani Jeevan Kuckian. It was a different kind of scene to see the five ladies holding the lamp and children following them with ‘kalasha’ walked on a procession along with the public into the stage to light the lamp while we could hear the beats of the drum and the explanation of the word ‘lighting the lamp’ which says it represents the five different languages of Karnataka mainly, Kannada, Tulu, Konkani, Beary and Kodava. This was followed by a prayer song by the invited artist from Mangalore, Ravindra Prabhu and Anitha Samson which created a vibration in the auditorium resulting in keeping the audience standing spell bound for nearly more than 10 minutes.
The Grand Patron of Karnataka Sangha Sharjah, Mark Denis D'Souza opened up the programme with his inaugural welcome speech in Kannada. Immediately a welcome dance was presented by the little children of Symphony Group of Ajman. Followed was a dance Ocean Kids Group which comprised talented group of individuals namely Gavin, Delvina, Cema, Sonali, Inish, Nidhi and Pratheek and was a remarkable performance.
Shri Vishwakarma Seva Samithi presented a jaanapada nritya called “Le Le Padiga” and the participants included Subha Prashant, Swathi Ravishankar, Vidya Mohan & Roopa Vasundar who was also a Choreographer. There were solo singing by some of the local talents like Harish Sherigar who gave some beautiful numbers enjoyed by the audience. Also we could hear beautiful numbers by Yash Pinto, Akshita, Dinesh and Sharon Rego.
It was a time when KSS introduced the famous visiting troupe from Mangalore headed by Ravindra Prabhu and Anitha Samson accompanied by Roshan Belman with the musical group called ‘Sweet Melodies’ of Dubai lead by Arun Carlo. Naveen Koppa the presenter performer mimicry artiste took up the programme forward with his unique style and their group gave a tremendous performance with good number of songs in 5 different languages from the state of Karnataka.
Continued with a solo performance by Gavin Rodrigues of Ocean Kids who was a winner in Famad Pernal’s dance competition held recently and who gave a good performance to be applauded.
Dolla Nandigudda, a well known comedy star was introduced who gave a remarkable performance with his group. Soon after we could see a stunning number by Billawas Dubai & N.E. who presented a beautiful number choreographed by Yogita Salian and performed by Raksha, Vinitha, Divya, Purvi & Piyush.
Followed was a Kannada skit by Daiji Rang Mandir performed by Alwyn Pinto and Suvarna Satish which was a remarkable performance.
Soon KSS presented the prestigious ‘Mayura Prashashti’ an award KSS were handing over to those important people of Karnataka in UAE identified to be unique in various field such as sports, education, literature, drama, media, business etc., year after year. This year KSS identified 2 personalities for this award and one of those were Ganesh Rai a multi talended rare personality and Prakash Rao Payyar another personality known in the field of drama. They were felicitated by Hebbar of Swiss Arabian Perfumery, Prabhakar Ambalthare, Noel Almeida, Mark Denis, Shekar Shetty, Yadav Kotian and Saad Mohammed respectively. Continued with this was a book release programme. The book written by Shri Gopinath was released in the presence of Sarvotham Shetty, Shekar Shetty, Mark Denis D'Souza, Ganesh Rai, Prakash Rao Payyar, Ganesh Rai and Noel Almeida.
After lunch break immediately Mogaveers UAE presented a brilliant performance called “Besthara Nrithya” by Deepak Raj Kotian, Satish Karkera, Ravi Salian, Nalini Deepak, Anitha Dhanjay, Neetha Puthran and Yogita Salian being choreographed by Deepak Raj Kotian.
Followed by this was another brilliant performance by Abu Dhabi Karnataka Sangha and the participants were Sahil Pai, Rahul Mallya, Sudiksha Kamath, Malvika Shenoy, Vineeth Shenoy, Aiditi Kini, Ruhi Prabhu, Aniketh Kini, Chethan Kini, Neha Kamath, Avani Kamath, and Vishal Kudva. The programme was ably presented by Narashimha Kudva & Shakunthala Kini and Directed by Shubha V. Kamath. Soon Beary Cultural Forum presented a programme called “Dappu Dance” which was very well performed by the members of the Forum.
Ocean Kids continued with their third performance followed by the presentation by the invited guests from Mangalore, Ravindra Prabhu & Troupe.
With a break was a felicitation programme to honour Dolla Nandigudda a well known comedy artiste from Mangalore for his contribution to Kannada Commedy Circus.
Ravindra Prabhu and his troupe gave an unforgettable performance for the first time in UAE admired and enjoyed by all Kannadigas of UAE who are awaiting to have a similar programme in the near future.
Some of the known guests who arrived and witnessed the show were Sarvotham Shetty, President of Abu Dhabi Karnataka Sangha, Dr. Yousuf President of Beary’s Cultural Forum, B.G. Mohandas Ex-President of Karnataka Sangha Dubai and Chief Editor Gulf Kannadiga.com, Walter Nandalike, Chief Editor Daiji World, Herman Louis, Managing Director of Radio Spice 105.4 FM, Shekar Shetty of Arab Udupi Hotel Group, Ashok Shetty of Mubarak General Trading, Dr. Muloor, L.V. Puthran President of Mogaveers UAE, Prakash Rao Payyar of Dwani Pratishtana, Prabhakar Ambalthare of Ambalthare Vision, Nizar Thalangar, Secretary of Indian Association Sharjah, Hebbar of Swiss Arabian Perfumery, Vinay of Namma T.V. , Kushal Shetty and many more.
Shodhan Prasad who was the ‘Master of the Ceremony’ conducted the whole programme spicing with some ‘hanigavana’ in between and was felicitated by Karnataka Sangha Sharjah with Shawl and Memento.
At around 7 pm as scheduled the long awaited programme got concluded with Raffle Draw and prize distribution with vote of thanks being conferred by Nithyanand Bhandary, General Secretary of Karnataka Sangha Sharjah concluding the show. The credit should go to the enthuastic members of Karnataka Sangha Sharjah including Vishwanath Shetty, Sujay Bendore, Anand Bailoor, Shantaram Achar, Shahd Mohammed, Shashikant and others including the President Noel D. Almeida without which such a show would not be possible.