Mangaluru: The valedictory event of the first ever “Life on Streets”, the photo contest from NewsKarnataka.com took place at the City Centre mall at 5pm on Saturday, August 20. The closing ceremony slowed down the hustle and bustle of people in the mall and a large audience was a part of the beautiful event.
Prabhakar Kulal, a 30 year veteran in the field of photography, was declared the winner of the 44-day competition for his beautiful click with the title, “”You have two hands. One to help yourself, the second to help others”. He received a cash prize of Rs 10,000 and a trophy. With overwhelming joy he said, “I clicked the picture at Bijapur. I travel during my free time. I clicked the picture on one of those occasions. I have won a couple of awards earlier for photography including an award from UNICEF”.
Neilesh Jeevan won the Facebook Popular Choice award for his photograph. His picture garnered more than 1,300 likes for which he walked away with a cash prize of Rs 5000 and a trophy.
Street warriors felicitated
Joe Gonsalves, the 95-year-old traffic warden from Mangaluru and Charmadi Hasanabba, who is popularly known as the ‘one-man ambulance’ were felicitated for their contributions to the society.
Joe Gonsalves his traffic warden system has helped the traffic cops in the city to manage the congested traffic in the city with a lot more ease. A lot of youngsters from the city’s educational institutions have taken up the initiative and joined the squad with the nonagenarian which helps in better management of city’s traffic.
Hasanabba has carried accident victims in his own vehicle and saved at least 1,000 accident victims. Popularly known as ‘Charmadi Hasanabba’, he has saved accident victims in Charmadi Ghat by shifting them to hospitals at the right time.
Gonsalves, who spoke on the occasion, said that it would be great if youngsters come forward to lend a helping hand in managing the city’s traffic. “My appeal to all the youngsters gathered here is to lend an hour voluntarily to manage the city’s traffic. It will be really good”.
“Life on Streets”
‘Life on Streets’, a unique photo contest to provide a platform for amateur photographers by Newskarnataka.com was launched at the City Centre mall on July 3. Over 300 entries from budding photographers were received from July 3 to August 15.
All that the participants had to do was to submit one or a maximum three candid pictures. The pictures had to be creatively composed in that they capture life on the streets – a face, a moment of life on the street with a brief story line (where when and how) and a caption.
The competition which ran for 44 days received an overwhelming response. The much acclaimed judges – veteran photographer Yajna Acharya, Orthodontist and artist Dr Akhter Husain and renowned photographer Kishan Rao had a tough time scrutinizing and selecting the winners.
Consolation prizes were distributed to Junaiz Mohammed, Aparna Panambur, Jacob Johnson, Udbhav Nayak and Jisho Jojo. All the five winners received cash prizes of Rs 2000 each and trophies.
The judges Dr Akhter Husain, Kishan Rao, well wisher of NewsKarnataka Valerian D’Almeida and MD of Al Mazroui and Clevy Auto Services, Abu Dhabi Leo Rodrigues were present on the occasion.
Dr Akhter Husain who addressed the gathering said that it was easy to learn photography. “Some year back it was difficult to learn photography. Now with the advanced technology and affordable cameras, everyone can learn photography. Nowadays, almost everybody is a photographer. India is an amazing country where there is lot of opportunities to click beautiful pictures showing life. This theme “Life on Streets” is a very good theme. I thank the organizers for organizing such a competition and hope it will remain a permanent feature and they will continue organizing such unique events in future”.
Kishan Rao too praised the theme of the competition which ran for more than 40 days and received more than 300 entries. He said that events like these give an opportunity to youngsters to showcase their skills and talents.
The bollywood connect
Mangalurean Director-Producer Sandeep Malani, who was one of the guests of honour, introduced his latest bollywood movie “Maa” to the gathering.
“My new movie ‘Maa’ has new stars and a few other seasoned actors. There are a lot of actors from Mangaluru, Mysuru and Mumbai. As many as 100 new actors are in the movie. Maa is all set for a Diwali release and is currently in the post-production stage,” said Malani.
Actors like Vinnie Fernandes and Mohammad Ashiq who accompanied the much acclaimed director, spoke their heart out to the audience.
Adithya Rajendran, one of the participants in the “Life on Streets” photo contest was honoured by the movie team for her beautiful photo matching the theme of the movie and the photo contest.
Bindaas Huduga of Mangaluru, RJ Anurag of Red FM in his usual inimitable style compered the event.
Extraordinary and super talented beatboxers Swaroop and Akshay rocked the whole gathering with their performance. Their performance mesmerized the listeners to an extent that almost everyone from the top floors got lured and came to down to the ground floor to listen to their skills.
A dance performance by the D-Zone Dance Academy followed which was appreciated by one and all in the gathering.
A spot photo contest was held where several entries were received. Three lucky winners walked away with goodies.
The sponsors and the media partners were honoured on the occasion. Staff correspondent Alfred Pais delivered the vote of thanks.
CEO of Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat, Sri Vidya; Abdul Yasir, Managing Director, Highland Hospital; Mukund Kamath, Managing Director, Ideals Ice Cream; Dr Rohan, Kanachur institute of Medical science; Mukesh Hegde, Managing Director, Car Decor; Soujanya Hegde from Prop Hippo and Maestro Productions; Dinesh Shetty, Sales Head, Coastal Farms; Rachan Raj, Marcom Manager, City Centre; Praveen and Naveen of Namma TV; Ranjan Shetty, Marketing Manager, Panache; Waseeem, Director, Mangalore Meri Jaan, Chief Operating Officer of Spearhead Media Pvt Ltd, Brian Fernandes; Marketing Head, Mehwish Hussain; Editor-in-Chief Bhakti Hegde and others were present.
Prabhakar Kulal’s top prize winning photograph
Neilesh Jeevan’s photograph which earned him the Facebook Popular Choice award
Consolation prize winning photographs
Adithya Rajendran’s photograph which won her a special prize from Director-Producer Sandeep Malani
