Qatar: Karnataka Muslim Cultural Association Qatar conducted the 61st Karnataka Rajyotsava on Friday, November 11 at Al Maha Academy Boys in Doha.
The event started at 5 pm local time with the recital of Quranic verses by Master Faakhir Faiyaz. The verses were translated by Hannan Ahmed Assadi. The Master of ceremony Zakir Ahmed explained the schedule of events for the program and handed over the stage to Asadullah Baig to continue with the cultural program. The first part of the cultural program was for around 30 minutes after which the public function started.
The Master of Ceremony Shaik Mudassir Ahmed took over the podium to invite the Chief Guest Moinuddin Bava, Guest of honour Dinesh Amin Mattu, President of KMCA Niyaz Ahmed, vice president of KMCA Abdulla Monu and general secretary of KMCA Saquib Raza on stage. As a part of GCC culture, the dates were given to the chief guest, guest of honour and then to all the heads of Indian organizations and dignitaries who were present in the event.
President of KMCA Niyaz Ahmed welcomed all the dignitaries, members and all attendees to the event and also explained the present situation of GCC with the drop in oil prices and emphasized on being united and supporting each other when away from our home country. A fund donation was done from KMCA to Indian Community Benevolent Fund which was received by president of ICBF Arvind Patil.
The event continued with prize distribution for kids of KMCA members who had achieved excellence in education and sports. The prize distribution was organized by Ruksana Muneer and supported by KMCA Ladies wing members Aisha Rafique and Masooda. From education section, Nimra Dastagir, Hiba Fathima and Bilal Ahmed were awarded for achieving highest marks in 10th grade exams and from sports section Nidal Sheikh was awarded for winning interschool swimming competition. Also, Neha Shetty was given a special award for the second time from KMCA for winning U13 GCC badminton Singles and Doubles for second time continuously and making Kannadigas proud.
A special recognition honour was made by KMCA as usual. The honoured person was Mohammed Ashraf – Office Manager of Indian Cultural Center for giving his best service to Indian community in Qatar for 17 long years. The Guest of Honour, Dinesh Amin Mattu- Media Advisor for the Chief Minister of Karnataka who spoke on the occasion about the unity and integrity of Kannadigas. He said that he was happy to see the unity of people away from home country. He briefed about how the differences are brought between the people of different religion by some non-cultural heads and how we have to remove those difference to support each other and to unite ourselves to make a better Karnataka and better India. Chief guest Moinuddin Bava – MLA of Karnataka government, supported the words of Dinesh Amin Mattu by saying that, the unity in Kannadigas can only make Karnataka a better place and in turn make India a better nation. He was delighted to see the gathering from Karnataka who are celebrating Kannada Rajyotsava organized by a Muslim organization KMCA in a Muslim country – Qatar. He also promised to help any of the people from Karnataka in any possible way for their betterment.
The event continued with the release of yearly KMCA magazine – Pragathi. The magazine release was done by the guests and was joined by the KMCA committee members and people who supported in the making of magazine Arun Kumar, Roopa Pramod, Subramanya Hebbagelu and Savious Crasta. The magazine was brought to the stage by Editor Aisha Rafique and sub editor Ayesha Abdullah Monu.
A momento was presented by KMCA to the chief guest and the guest of honour after which the heads of different Kannada organizations felicitated the chief guest and the guest of honour. Vice president of KMCA Abdulla Monu delivered the vote of thanks.
The cultural function was hosted by Asadullah Baig where different artists kept the audience busy with their performance. Mysore Anand made everyone laugh with his wonderful mimicry, Idrees brought astonishment in the event by his famous magic tricks, Prahalad Acharya shocked the gathering with his beautiful shadow acts and Ramachandra Hadapad mesmerized the audience with his ghazals.
During the cultural function, Chikkamagaluru Friends Circle felicitated Niyaz Ahmed and Ravi Shetty for winning the Rajyotsava Award 2016 from Chikkamagaluru and Dakshina Kannada. The profile of Niyaz Ahmed was read by Manjunath and the felicitation was jointly done by Arun Kumar, Sanjay Khudri, Milan Arun, Priyajith Gowda, Mustafa, John Pinto and Shaik Mudassir Ahmed. Ravi Shetty’s introduction was done by Niyaz Ahmed himself and the felicitation was jointly done by Mannangi and Deepak.
Dignitaries from different Kannada organisations namely Milan Arun, Arun Kumar, Sanjay Khudri, Ravi Shetty, H K Madhu, Arvind Patil, Abdul Hye, Navneeth Shetty, Nazeer Pasha, Anil Boloor, Nagesh Rao, Seetaram Shetty, Ramchandra Shetty, Prabakhar, Subramanya, Mahesh Gowda, Alex Castellino and Savious Crasta made their presence felt at the event. The event was a successful one with an attendance of more than 350 people and was concluded at 9:30 pm local time. Momentos were presented to the artists from ExCom of KMCA.
