By Mohandas Kamath
Daijiworld Media Network – Kuwait (SP)
Kuwait, May 14: Kuwait Kannada Koota(KKK), a premier non-profit cultural association functioning in Kuwait, proudly unveiled the beginning of a series of cultural programmes, as part of its silver jubilee celebrations. KKK was founded in 1984 by a group of enthusiastic Kannadigas hailing from the state of Karnataka.
An inter-school drawing competition was held for the children of Indian schools in this connection. It was a resounding success, with 17 Indian schools sending around 140 school children. They were divided into three groups as per their ages.
The chief guest of the day was Prof V B Hiregoudar, a renowned artist par excellence, hailing from the state of Karnataka. He has bagged many awards in the field of art. A few of them are, Mysore Dasara Exhibitions award, Karnataka Lalithakala Academy senior artist honorary award, Jewel of India award, New Delhi and Suvarna Karnataka state award for contribution towards fine art. The children of the Indian schools, who participated in the competition, must consider themselves lucky as each and every drawing created by them was checked by the chief guest Prof Hiregoudar, to pick three outstanding drawings from each group.
The cultural programme for the day started with the delivery of welcome speech by Koota President Satish Chandra Shetty, who spoke about the achievements of KKK and its activities. He welcomed the chief Guest Prof Hiregoudar and guest of honor Roopa Iyer, who is a renowned film director and social activist. Prof Hiregoudar spoke about the art and appreciated KKK for having invited an artist from Karnataka to key off their silver jubilee celebrations. He candidly admitted, that he does not feel to be out of Karnataka state, as the lively Kannadigas in KKK made him to feel at home. Roopa Iyer, a noted social activist from Bangalore, Karnataka has founded a home to take care of HIV positive children. She in her emotional speech, said that these children for no fault of theirs, have been shunned by the cruel society. In fact, she organized the screening of her film, “Mukaputa,” which creates an awareness about AIDS and shows how a HIV infected child should not be treated as an untouchable in the society. It was indeed a very educative show.
Satish Chandra Shetty, president of the Koota, took this opportunity to thank all the principals of the Indian schools for sending as many as 140 children for the inter-school drawing competition, thus adding a rich flavour to the drawing competition. Satish Chandra Shetty also thanked Sujatha Rajendran, a popular Bharat Natyam dance teacher in Kuwait, for organizing the cultural programme for the day. It was a day full of educative as well as entertaining programmes, to start off the silver jubilee celebrations of KKK , planned to be held throughout the year.