Media Release

Bengaluru, Nov 15: Kanara Catholic Association (KCA) the 62-year-old Mangalurean Catholic organisation in Bangalore is organising its annual Mistletoe function on 7th December 2019 at Catholic Club. KCA, which has a membership of over 1,500 people has been at the forefront of organising cultural and community programmes to inculcate a feeling of community spirit and togetherness among the Mangalurean Catholics in Bengaluru, a city of 10 million. The difficulties in career, travel and other areas in such a large city make it even more important for organisations like KCA to ensure that the Mangalurean Catholics, particularly the younger generation are engaged and made aware of their roots and cultural strengths.

In 2018, Mistletoe also held at the Catholic Club had an attendance of over 1,800 people with the Chief Guest being Faye D’Souza of Bangalore Mirror Fame. A host of cultural events were showcased all personally organised by the President Marjorie Texeira along with Vice President, Hilma Roach. Since then, KCA has been going from strength to strength and has hosted a number of events to engage the wider Mangalurean Catholic community. Notable initiatives were the Little Sisters of the Poor Fete KCA stall run by KCA Committee members. Another sparkling initiative was the inauguration of the KCA Entrepreneur Cell by IIT Alumni, Roshan D’Silva and run by Veena Serrao, Pramod Pinto and Dr. Joseph Rasquinha. The Entrepreneur cell is expected to mentor home entrepreneurs from KCA for any of their specific needs and even connect them to ensure better success. As recently as November 14 on Children's day, KCA had a children’s day event at St Johns Medical College where over 90 children were given gifts at the Paediatric ward.

For Mistletoe 2019, KCA has a grand gala function planned with the chief guest being well known singer and winner of the Rolling Stone award in 2012 Vivienne Fernandes Pocha from Mumbai. Vivienne has sung a number of Bollywood songs and worked with the best from A R Rahman to Shankar Ehsaan Loy. She also played a cameo in Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do. Her most recent offering was the song ‘Shimmy Shake’ for Vishal Bharadwaj’s movie ‘Rangoon’. The guest of honour for this celebration is Joylus D’Souza who has brought great credit to the community by being appointed as the chairman of the Christian Development Board, a State cabinet position. Mistletoe is timed at the start of December as a harbinger of joy and a fitting start to the Christmas season all look forward to.