India Social & Cultural Centre hosts 'India Fest 2012' in Abu Dhabi

[email protected] (S M Farooq)
February 6, 2012

Abu Dhabi, February 6: India Social & Cultural Centre (ISC) Abu Dhabi hosted a three-day 'India Fest 2012' at their premises in Abu Dhabi which was inaugurated by H.E. M.K. Lokesh, Ambassador of India to UAE on February 2.

Chief Guest H.E. Lokesh took tour of the India fest fair through the stalls of exhibitors along with the President of ISC Ramesh Panicker, Cultural Secretary of the Embassy of India, Anuka Chakravarty who was instrumental in bringing cultural troupe from India, Sudhir Kumar Shetty, CEO Global – UAE Exchange Centre, Yogesh Prabhu, Honorary Treasurer and M. Jayaram Rai, Honorary Auditor and other co-members of the executive board of ISC. India Fest 2012 is being supported by Cultural Wing of Embassy of India and hosted by ISC with Gemini Building Materials as the Title Sponsor and Al Masoud Automobiles & Delma Group as the Main Sponsors. Nissan Sunny car is displayed in the ground floor which is the mega raffle prize included in the entry tickets.

The festival will run through 3 days with 5PM to 10 PM on the first day and 1PM to 11 PM on second day and 12AM to 11 PM on the final day. Around 50,000 spectators were expected by the Centre who had conducted these kind of festivals successfully earlier.

The gates were open at 5 PM with various stalls within the multi-storey facility of the Centre exhibited by various institutions, banks, brokers, real estate agents, jewellers, traders and many more business units operating in UAE and elsewhere. On the top floor were various food court stalls arranged by many famous restaurants as well as individuals who displayed and served mouthwatering Indian delicacies. Despite the cold and windy weather on the open top floor, people of various nationalities flocked into the Centre which had open invitations to all though they had to pay a small entrance fee which is loaded with raffle prizes.

There was a stage set on the top floor swimming pool area with dazzling lights and sounds. DJ Dhanush of Radio 105.4 FM along with co-host Aparna opened up the stage show while the Chief Guest arrived on the top floor of the facility, welcoming the guests and the dignitaries. The Chief Guest along with other guests were invited on to the stage including K P Ganesh Babu, Managing Director of Gemini Building Materials, the title sponsors, and Humayun Alam, Assistant General Manager of Al Masoud Automobiles, Padmashree Gangaramani of Al Fara Group, and others.

Entertainment secretary Ashok Kumar welcomed the dignitaries on the dais for the inauguration H.E. Lokesh, accompanied by ISC officials and sponsors lit the inaugural lamp. M A Salam welcomed the dignitaries on the dais and the ISC board of governors.

Ramesh Panicker in his presidential speech thanked the ambassador for visiting and inaugurating the festival and also organizers for putting up such a huge show. He also remembered former president Thomas Varghese who had initiated the first India Fest 2011 and conducted it successfully. He also announced that 5% of earnings of the festival will be allocated to the charity to the needy Indian community. He said last year a substantial amount had been sent to India for the purpose. He requested all the guests and invitees to enjoy the three days of festival with food, fun and entertainment arranged by the Centre.

H.E. M.K. Lokesh spoke on the occasion and commended the efforts and hard work put up by ISC and particularly by the festival organizing committee. He too remembered Thomas Varghese, who had organized this festival for the first time in ISC and thanked him for his vision. He also thanked Anuka Chakravarthy for her efforts in arranging visa and travel of 25 cultural troupe members from India who would be performing over the three days.

Soon after the inauguration were cultural shows by various world renowned musicians and artists who flew all the way from India, Indonesia and Egypt. India's famous Pandit Daya Shanker with his musicians presented a soothing Shehnai (aerophonic instrument) music and entertained the gathering. Pandit Daya Shanker and his troupe were felicitated by ISC's Honorary Auditor Jayarama Rai with roses as a mark of appreciation from Indian community. Followed was a brilliant Egyptian dance performance by Mohammed who gave a stunning presentation of their culture. Entertainment also included Qawwali presentation by the renowned Qawwali singer Jameel Ahmed from India with his 8-member troupe sang catchy qawwali numbers and enthralled the crowd. Couple dance and peacock dance were presented by the Indonesian dance troupe and all the entertainers were widely appreciated and applauded.

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Media Release
July 30,2020

Jeddah: The first chartered flight for repatriation passengers from Jeddah to Bengaluru organized by Karnataka NRI Forum Jeddah – Saudi Arabia was successfully landed at Bengaluru airport by 01.00 am on 19th July 2020.

Spice Jet (SG9884) departed from King Abdul Aziz International Airport Jeddah by 05.00 pm local time with 177 stranded passengers which includes 12 Pregnant Woman, 3 infants, 44 Short term visa holders, 3 medical emergency patients and 115 migrate workers and labours from various districts of Karnataka state.

Karnataka NRI Forum Jeddah, a registered charitable organization under Government of Karnataka & Indian Consulate Jeddah - Saudi Arabia, helping the Kannadigas overseas & in Karnataka State as well, has initiated major role for helping stranded Kannadigas to travel back to home. During Pandemic hundreds of stranded Kannadigas were approached to the forum and requested to arrange special chartered flight to Bengaluru from Jeddah.

Initiating from collecting the data of passengers, the forum’s special panel including its President Mr. Mohammed Mansoor, Secretary Mr. Peter Mascarenes, Vice Presidents Mr. Nasir Khurshid, Dr.Ashfaque Maniyar, Chief Coordinator Mr. Shaikh Saoud, Cultural Secretaries Mr. Arifulla Shariff and Mr. Rajesh Suvarna, Treasurer Mr. Habib Rahman and Press Secretary Mr. Baig, the forum’s members have worked very hard to conclude this task very successful. 

The forum provided food packets as refreshment, complementary PPE kitsto each passenger as precaution against the spread of any infections while travelling and also guided all passengers by supporting them in Awdha portal (Saudi Passport Department) and Seva Sindhu portal registration of Government of Karnataka.

The official travel partner ITL Travel Management Company has rendered remarkable service to the passengers not only in ticketing but also supported with top priority in confirming the aircraft from SPICE JET and availed good service from ground staff at Jeddah Airport. 

All passengers have reached safely to their homes after completing the 7 days institutional quarantine at Bengaluru. 100% passengers had NEGETIVE report on Covid-19 test made on arrival as well as after institutional quarantine. 

In the press release published from the President, Mr. Mohammed Mansoor has expressed his prodigious gratitude to the Ambassador of India to Saudi Arabia H. E. Dr. Ausaf Sayeed, Deputy Consul General of India - Jeddah Mr. Y Saber and Chief Minister of Karnataka State Shri B. S. Yediyurappafor providing necessary approvals and NOC for the chartered flight operation. He also conveyed his boundless appreciationto Shri B. Y. Raghavendra, Member of Parliament Shimoga District (Karnataka) for his swift support extended to the forum and as well to Dr. Aarathi Krishna, Ex-Deputy Chairperson – NRI Forum of Karnataka – Government of Karnataka for her significant guidance and support on completing this mission.

The forum has thanked all the officers in King Abdul Aziz International Airport Jeddah and Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru for the facilities provided to the passengers. The Forum has thanked all passengers travelled for their calmness and also thanked to all other members of the forum, Staff of ITL Travels and SPICE JET for their tremendous support extended throughout the mission accomplishment.

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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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Media Release
July 6,2020

The Chairman of Intellectual Council Jeddah, Syed Nasir Khurshid, called for a Zoom meeting on 2nd July, 2020 to celebrate the oath taking ceremony of the D K Shiva Kumar who took over as the President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee. Mr Khurshid opened the meeting with a very enthusiastic and sincere note of congratulations to newly appointed president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, Mr. D.K.Shivakumar.

The chief speaker for the evening was Saleem Khaleefa, vice Chairman of the Council, he said, for more than 4 decades, he is monitoring the politics of the Karnataka state very closely and also monitoring the role of crises management DK Shiva Kumar in the last 2 years, whether it is Rajya Sabha election of Mr. Ahmed Patel or managing the MLAs of Madhya Pradesh. He said, he is one of the best leaders of the party and the best leaders use “their brain, their heart, their soul and their guts.” And his leadership is fit in the size of all these characters. Growth is a very powerful word and fundamentally, party growth is the responsibility of the President and he can take a holistic approach to close the gap between and among the party cadres. 

Every effort is to be made to preserve the sense of unity within the party. We need to unite party base while appealing to voters. He should identify on ground challenges and find the mechanism to address them. He further pointed out that a President’s chief responsibility is to bring all the party leaders and office bearers on the same page with a Mission to bring back the congress party into power in the next assembly election. His smart strategies, road map, mechanism, booth management, better connected with the party workers, taking everyone along with him, will be a direction for the presidents of the party in other states to take party into power.

He pronounced his leadership is totally remarkable and has a track record of his very sensible leadership and he also known for his collaborative and crises management leadership style. Engr. Nasir suggested that his first task is to address the formidable challenges faced by the party and bring the Congress members together, on a very single aspect how to win the election. The party backbone and strength is gross-root workers who can play a significant role to take the party in a very strong and popular position in public. He emphasized that unity is the main strategy and ingredient to win the election, because a party divided will hurt, cannot win the election. Planning is everything and a good planning goes a long way, helping to win the election.  

All the members of the Council expressed their views and everyone is very much hopeful that he is the right person to lead the party from top.He has commanded immense respect from party workers, office bearers, all communities, groups, including opposition parties. He is a very experienced, have immense experience and hard-work leader and he is a strategist and knows the art how to motivate the party workers and unite all in a single rope.

Engr. Amjad Ali said, we are very much confident that he will re-structure from bottom to top, panchyat, taluka and district committees will be re-structured and will induct caliber and talented leaders who can understand and realize their responsibilities and accountability as head of the party at their levels with only one point how to win the coming election with thumping majority.

One of key members of the Council, Sajid Shaikh expressed joyfully that every single member of the party have confidence on the leadership of Mr. D.K Shiva Kumar and his appointment to the top position says a lot of nice things about him.  He has shown his great leadership and expert in crises management on many occasion.  The party in Karnataka is in good hands and I am sure he will sort-out all the difference between and among the party leaders and cadres, which has hurt the party in the last election and will bring all on the same page. Congress party and its workers are lucky to have such a passionate and hardworking president who is ready to work day in and day out to bring party in power in 2023 assembly election.

Prominent members of the Council, Engr. Azher Parvaiz, Engr. Abdul Wahid, Hazrat Qadri, Engr. Abdul Ameed, Saleem Khan, and Rafiuddin Kharadi commented, we looking forward his dynamic and result oriented leadership in organizing and re-shaping the party in the state, he will hold all congressmen together with a noble purpose, motivate every party worker to work with dedication so that congress can come back to power with absolute majority and he can count on our absolute support in booth management as well  suggest a few points to be included in the manifestos, running a high  successful voltage campaign highlighting the failure of the BJP government at the Center and at the state, between and among in the NRIs community across the Gulf Countries, including Europe and America. Council will do the value-based politics and will present the image of the Congress party, as the rational political party, with secular and inclusive, where people of all religions, caste, race and gender, feel wanted in the party, as its main ideology.

Syed Nasir Khurshid thanked entire team for attending the meeting he expressed his gratitude towards Vice Chairman of the council Saleem Khaleefa for speaking as chief speaker and giving updates, he said, team members are excited to meet in person with Mr. D.K. Shiva Kumar, when members visit India during their vacation.

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