Oman: The fourth Annual Family get together marked a red-letter day for Oman Billawas. Almost 600 Billawas along with their families assembled at the Grand Hall, Al Falaj Hotel, Muscat, to celebrate the event with gaiety and fervor. The hall donned a festive look with the entrance grandly decorated by Guruprasad and team with banana stems, coconut bunches, buntings and flowers specially flown in from Mangaluru.
The day started off with ”Lighting of the Lamp” by the President and Managing committee members. Inaugurating the function, President, Ashok Suvarna welcomed all members and their families, while wishing them an enjoyable day.
Winners of the Children Talent show held earlier along with the Judges were presented with Certificates of Merit and Mementos respectively. Shivagiri XI Cricket team who were the Winners and Billawa Challengers Cricket team who were the runners-up, of the cricket tournament held during the previous year along with their sponsors, were also awarded with medals and trophies by Ashok Suvarna. Similarly, trophies were presented to Gitesh Sanil, the Man of the Match and to Sukumar Anchan, the Man of the Series .
S K Poojary and Umesh Bantwal, Vice Presidents, in their key-note address commended Oman Billawas on the various activities and initiatives taken up in Oman as well as in India, while requesting all the members for better participation. Kushal Bangera, General Secretary, then presented the Annual report of activities undertaken during the previous year.
Gangadhar Poojary, detailed the various sports activities conducted during the past year and also informed them about proposed forthcoming activities. Suhan appraised the members present on the good work done in helping the needy children in Mangaluru in furthering their education, by providing scholarships to 40 students during the year 2014-15. Sudhir Kumar from Sohar, in his address appreciated the initiatives of Oman Billawas, while assuring of continued support from their end.
Dr C K Anchan, Vice President took this opportunity to welcome the President, Vice Presidents and all the Committee members on stage, while highlighting the activities in which each one of them were involved. He also briefed the august gathering on various achievements of Oman Billawas in philanthropic activities like providing educational scholarships to children in Mangaluru, providing medical assistance to various members of the community in Oman as well as in India, etc. He called upon them to come forward in contributing their mite to enable Oman Billawas to continue supporting such noble causes.
The Cultural activities commenced with a beautiful welcome dance by Gowri Poojary. The tiny tots from Sohar then presented a nice filmy dance which was followed by a rock-n-roll number by the Muscat kids, both of which had the audience captivated. The ladies from Muscat presented a group dance to the melodious Hindi film number ‘Manwa’, which was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience. The Sohar team then presented a ‘Bollywood couple dance’ which was enjoyed by all. ‘Nagada’ was the next filmy dance number performed by the Muscat ladies, which was also thoroughly enjoyed by the audience. The next performance had the audience up in cheers watching the ‘Hip-hop dance’ by the Sohar Billawas. ‘Chill Yaar’, the next dance number – a Hindi filmy fusion dance performance by the teenagers from Muscat had the crowd mesmerized.
‘Dark light act’, a unique play presented under UV light effects, was an awesome act by the Oman Billawas team, which had the audience asking for more. The next performance, ‘Fusion dance’ by Sohar group was a colourful presentation liked by one and all.
The short Yakshagana ballet play, depicting certain interesting snippets from mythology in dance form was a wonderful performance coupled with authentic costumes of all the artistes, was a treat to watch and enjoy.
“Premanathana Gammathu” was another dance ballet, presented by the Sohar team, with all the artistes dressed up in a variety of colourful attire putting up a great performance.
The ”grand finale” to the day’s cultural activities was “Let’s be one”, an act involving all the artistes – kids, ladies and gentlemen- who had been involved in the day’s activities. Each of the performances was a treat to watch and was thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated by the entire audience.
All the various dances and entertainment programmes were choreographed by Shalini Baburaj, Gokul Poojary, Sheetal Sudesh, Akshatha Amin, Neel Anchan, Hiten Poojary, Shreya Bangera and Karthik Kunder. The entire programme was conducted beautifully by the Master of Ceremonies – Suchethna Anchan and Umesh Jeppu, with able support and coordination from Prema Umesh, Neelkamal Anchan, Suvi Bangara, Kavitha Sanil, Manuja Suhan and Anitha Uppoor,
Dr C K Anchan, Vice President delivered the Vote of Thanks.
The finale was a sumptuous lunch buffet spread and served, which followed after an extremely enjoyable and memorable day for all the Oman Billawas and their family members.