Media Release
Bengaluru, Dec 8: Kanara Catholic Association (KCA) the 62 year old Mangalorean Catholic organisation in Bengaluru organised its annual December Christmas Mistletoe function. The event was filled with its usual verve tinged with glamour to usher in the Christmas spirit of 2019 along with the New Years’s hopes for 2020. Held at the Catholic Club premises in Bengaluru, mistletoe garnered the enthusiastic participation of the Mangalorean Catholic community with over 1,400 people graced the occasion. The event proved to be another momentous feather in the cap for the KCA in its attempts to ensure that the community becomes more integrated and appreciative of its heritage.
In her indomitable style, the KCA president, Marjorie Texeira had organised a plethora of cultural events from carol singing to cultural dances to an extremely popular Santa programme for the children. The most heartening part of all these events was that they were conducted fully with the participation of KCA members who spent time practising over weeks for these events. It was truly an impressive commitment by all in this busy Christmas season with the most encouraging point being the involvement of all age ranges from children to seniors with all participants giving it their all.
KCA also invited two illustrious members of the community, Vivienne Fernandes Pocha from Mumbai and Joylus D’Souza, the chairman of the Christian Development Board. The duo was facilitated by KCA Vice president Hilma Roach and president Marjorie Texeira. Vivienne, who is a well known Bollywood singer and winner of the Rolling Sone award in 2012 gave a stirring speech followed by a thrilling rendition of one of her songs. Joylus in his simple but elegant style in conversations with committee members Pramod Pinto, Dr Joseph Rasquinha and Veena Serrao enumerated his interesting but powerful ideas on how he would contribute to the progress of the Mangalorean community as the Chairman of the Christian Development Board.
Mistletoe 2019 was one step in KCA Bengaluru’s journey to engage and enable the Mangalorean Catholic community. In its march from strength to strength, in 2020, KCA is organising several events to further engage the community from visits to Myanmar and China to the conception of ‘Mood Mangalorean’ in 2020. Considering all these efforts are organised by the KCA Committee Pro bono, the Mangalorean Catholic community is well poised to improve their level of integration and engage all members, particularly the younger generation which would be beneficial to the community in general.