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Kannada Geleyara Balaga hosts 'Vana Bhojana 2013' in Dubai

[email protected] (Shodhan Prasad, Photos by Santosh Kumar Patel)
April 5, 2013
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Dubai, Apr 5: Kannada Geleyara Balaga, a newly formed association comprising of various like-minded Kannadigas residing in U.A.E. recently conducted their first programme 'Kalba Pravasa' and also conducted a blood donation camp at Sheikha Latifa Hospital where large number of Kannadigas came to donate their blood for a good cause.

After the success of these two programmes, Kannada Geleyara Balaga organised a ‘Vana Bhojana 2013’ last week at Zabeel Park, Dubai where several Kannadiga families participated in the function. Inspite of a busy weekend, nearly 250 Kannadigas assembled to participate in the activities conducted by the association.

Prashanth Raghavendra and Prema Negalur compered the programme while Satish Chakravarthy conducted the registration process. Main executive member Natarajaiah was present during the programme, which was inaugurated by chief convenor Prashanth Raghavendra with a welcome address.

As part of sports activities, dodge ball and other games were organised for men & women in four teams. The main attraction of the day was colouring competition for children in two separate categories where a lot of children enthusiastically participated in the competition. The competitions were conducted by Jyothirmayi and Prakash.

Members of the association Umesh Narayan, Sanjeeva, Denzil, Suresh, Suryanarayana, Ravi Kumar and Kiran conducted several games for couples. Many other games for men, women and children were conducted. Every sport had tough competition. Winners received prizes for each sporting activity.

The after-lunch session included 'Rasa Prashne' a quiz competition quizzing participants about Karnataka as a state. This was followed by Anthakshari singing programme while Smitha and Shwetha rendered melodious numbers which was greatly appreciated by the audience.

The 'logo' of the association was released by Tippu Sultan and Chandrashekar Sankole. The logo was designed by Srinivas Reddy who was honoured during the programme. President Iranna Mulimani spoke and distributed prizes to the winners of the day's activities.

The programme concluded with a vote of thanks.

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Media Release
June 24,2020

The Overseas Indian Cultural Congress (OICC), Bahrain, has charted aircrafts to repatriate stranded expatriates to India. 

Boby Parayil, General Secretary, OICC National Committee, Bahrain has thanked all those who supported in this cause.

“The aircrafts were not licensed and were in crisis until the last minute. Finally, Mohammed Mansoor, president of Bahrain chapter of Indian Overseas Congress approached IOC Middle East in charge Dr Arathi Krishna, who helped get permission to operate flight to Kozhikode,” he said in a release. 

All mandatory approvals from the Foreign Ministry of Affairs and other government officials were accomplished by Dr Arathi Krishna. OICC has expressed gratitude to her for her timely support, he said. 

OICC is also grateful to former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy for doing necessary arrangements to get all the approvals for flight landing in Kerala, he added.

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Agencies
August 8,2020

Dubai, Aug 7: One may call it good luck, but for two Indian expats it was God who prevented them at the last minute from boarding the Air India Express plane that crashed in Kerala, killing at least 18 people on board.

According to India's Civil Aviation Ministry, the Boeing 737 aircraft on a flight from Dubai to Kozhikode overshot the runway at Kozhikode airport on Friday evening. There were 184 passengers including 10 infants, 2 pilots and four cabin crew onboard the aircraft.

Noufal Moin Vetten, an Ajman resident working as an office boy in a Sharjah school, was booked to travel on the flight and had checked in as per schedule.

Recounting his miraculous escape, Vetten, a resident of Malappuram, Thirunavaya, whose visa was cancelled a week ago, told Gulf News: “I was handed my boarding pass, but when I reached immigration, they told me I had to pay a fine of Dh 1,000 (Rs 20,430) for overstay. I had only Dh 500 (Rs10,215) with me.

"I called my school PRO and he told me to come back. He said they would follow protocols and pay the fines before sending me,“ he said.

Vetten was disappointed and called his family to let them know.

“When I heard about the crash, I was saddened for all the passengers. But I'm so relieved I missed it. God has been really merciful,” said Vetten.

Afsal Parrakodan, a resident of Abu Dhabi, had a similar stroke of luck.

“My work visa was cancelled about a week ago. After getting my boarding pass, I was told I had to pay a fine of Dh1,000 at the immigration counter, but I had only Dh500 on me.”

“I was very keen to board the flight and be with my family. So I called a friend who brought me the additional Dh500, but by then, my baggage had been offloaded and the flight's doors were closed,” said Parrakodan.

“I was feeling very sad and called my mother to tell her I had missed the flight. But a few hours later, when I learnt of the crash, I couldn’t help but feel relieved and thankful to God for saving my life,“ said an overwhelmed Parrakodan who plans to fly back next week. 

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News Network
April 19,2020

Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) Chaiman Dr Sam Pitroda held video conference with senior IOC office bearers across Middle Eastern countries on 14th April 2020 to review the impact of COVID-19 pandemic among Indians residing in the region. Almost all speakers appreciated the efforts initiated and  implemented by  respective governments to contain spread of the deadly virus as well as measures taken towards welfare of the people affected by the lockdown. 

IOC Presidents, Mohammed Mansour - Bahrain, Abdullah Manjeri - Saudi Arabia, Dr J Ratan kunar - Oman and Girish kumar - Qatar, highlighted the quality treatment of patients and finacial aid provided by governments and other authorities. Bahrain IOC president Mansour , also  apprised about the 'Food for Needy' drive in Association with KHK Heroes foundation, initiated by HH Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Khalifa and quality treatments as well as financial aid to local and expat residents.

Anura Mathai, IOC  Global Event Coordinator, spoke about certain problems of Indians in the UAE. IOC Middle East Convener, Mansoor Palloor, emphasised and requested IOC Chairman to urge Indian government to arrange immediate repatriation of indians stranded in Gulf countries. AICC Secretary, Himanshu Vyas, IOC Secretary Dr Arathi Krishna, Dr Arshi Malik (Abha), Mohiuddin Sirajudeen (Jeddah), Advocate Joseph Palathara (Dammam) Prasad Kodru, Jayati Maitra Ziyad Ahmed (Qatar) and Khursheed Alam (Gen Secretary- Bahrain) also apprised the participants about various issues relevant to the pandemic and suggested further initiatives to be undertaken. 

Dr Sam Pitroda briefed about sustained and consolidated efforts by all IOC members  during this unprecedented situation facing the world and assured that he would convey IOC  concerns to the government and try his best to ensure all possible help is made available to all needy Indians.

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