Media release

Jeddah, Apr 21: Karnataka NRI Forum (KNRI) Jeddah celebrated their decennial anniversary on April 14 in a hall at Harazath, Jeddah.

Anand Kumar, Consul for consular affairs graced the function as chief guest while Vishwanath Hegde, chief patron of the forum, attended as guest of honour.

Mohammed Saifuddin, event manager and cultural secretary, welcomed the guests and introduced the anchors of the day Syed Nasir Khursheed, Sabu Chandran and Sahana Manjappa.

Chief guest Anand Kumar congratulated the forum on completion of 10th year celebration and wished the forum great success ahead. “Today is also the birthday of Dr B R Ambedkar who always worked for upliftment of socio-economically deprived people. We are ready to provide consulate support whenever required to help Indians. This NRI forum is doing good job in assisting the consulate works as and when need arises,”

President Roshan Philip Rodrigues in his speech welcomed all the dignitaries, guests and all the attendees to celebrate 10th Anniversary. He thanked all founder members for their initiative to form the forum. “Today is a proud moment for all of us while completing 10th years of services to the needy people. I appreciate the support by the team members. I thank them and their families for extending their cooperation. We feel proud that we are going in the right direction and we together all can do lot more for the society,”

“Our forum is doing great things in various fields. We have achieved many milestones in our objectives namely, providing support for education, financial aid to the talented students, blood donation and arranging free medical checkup camp, providing helping hand to those who are facing labour issues and other individual problems in the kingdom. The recent support extended to the camps of Bin Laden and Oger employees under the guidance of Indian Consulate has been appreciated. Also our new toilet projects in schools were highly admired in Karnataka. I appreciate the guidance and support of Vishwanath Hedge Patron of KNRI to our forum all the time. I urge all Kannadigas to contribute a small percentage of their salaries or income to a needy person regularly and make it a habit.”

Video presentation was arranged to highlight the activities and achievements for the past 10 years. Yashwanth Amin, general secretary briefed about the presentation. In this presentation KNRI revealed the special features of each districts in Karnataka, what made Kannadigas to form a KNRI Forum in Jeddah, achievements for the past 10 years, how they generate funds and the persons who are the pillars of the forum. In the end, general secretary highlighted that the forum belongs to all Kannadigas and requested them to come forward to join hands and strengthen it. Saud Shaikh, Sabu Chandran and Dadapeer Hayath were commended for their hard work to prepare video presentation.

During the event, KNRI Forum’s first Souvenir Hrudaya Sparsha was released by Anand Kumar and Vishwanath Hedge. Editor of the souvenir Syed Nasir Khursheed thanked the editorial team.

Guest singer from India, Mohammed Afsal who is known for Kumar Sanu and Udit Narayan songs entertained the crowd with his melodious voice. Jeddah’s prominent singers Mohammed Saif, Mohammed Kaleem, Aasha Shiju, Altaf Almelkar, Afifa Mahboob and Mirzana entertained the audience by singing old and new Hindi and Kannada songs. Dances were presented by the children from Indian schools and were choreographed by Madhuri Manjappa, Kavana Suresh, Anita Jangal and Reshma Kulkarni.

Dignitaries, committee members and performers were honoured with mementos as token of appreciation. Rayyan Sheikh, brilliant IISJ student from Shivamogga was felicitated for winning Toast Master competition held recently.

Programme started with Kannada all-time favourite song from ‘Gandhada Gudi’ by Mohammed Kaleem. Sheikh Saud conducted the quiz which was enjoyed by the audience, Iliyas Momin, Aijaz Ahmed and Syed Kawsain Pasha escorted the guests. Dr Ashfaq Maniyar, Faizee Razak Shaikh and Peter Mascarenhas motivated the attendees to become life members and help the forum. Mahboob Ali conducted the raffle draw where 10 gifts were presented to lucky winners, while Mukkaram Khan managed food arrangements.

Vote of thanks was delivered by Yashwanth Amin in which he expressed deep sense of appreciation and sincere gratitude towards all the sponsors for helping the forum to conduct this event.