Sambrama

This was the name of the event celebrated in our office on November 10th on the occasion of Suvarna Karnataka - Karnataka’s 50^th year Rajyotsava. Must say it was a tremendous success.

To be frank, I was a little apprehensive about it at the beginning and steered away from it. Thought it would be like a pro-kannaDa and anti-non-local languages kind of an event. But then was forced to "volunteer" for the group song as they needed more head-count!!!!!

The practice sessions were good and I came to realize that it indeed was “Sambrama” :-) -celebrating our rich culture. There was no ill-will for other languages. In fact, non-KannaDigas were encouraged to participate and they did participate with equal enthusiasm.

I had also "volunteered" for entrance/stage flower decoration and flower decoration with two of my team-mates. :-) Thinking of what flowers to use and what patterns to make was indeed fun! We settled on a list of colorful flowers - Shaavantighe, Mallige, Marigold, Sugandharaaja, Kanakambara, Gulabi. Add to that BaaLe Kandhu and Maavina yele. (For the thorana and entrance). :-)

The D-Day started with the preparation, decorating the entrance, setting up the stage, last minute practice sessions. The posters prepared by colleagues were put on display. It had information on Karnataka’s places, diversities, poets et al.

By the time the event started at around 4.00, the decoration was done. It could have been better if there was a little more time. I personally felt the color combination came out well. The WPR (Work Place Resources) guys helped us a lot in making the arrangements.

The event started off with a very good rendition of a Ganapathy shloka and then came a few more songs and dance (all kannada folk/movie songs) and then we sang the NaaDageethe - "Jai Bhaaratha jananiya thanujaathe". It was a very happy and proud feeling to sing it with the entire audience giving due respect to it by standing (This song is our state anthem).

The chief guest was T.N Seetharam and he gave a very good speech on Kannada and what it takes to save our heritage, culture and about youngsters getting carried away by foreign-influences. He told a very good sentence, which when roughly translated to English is "Open doors for knowledge and windows for business". His speech was very well received by the audience.

There was a small session of "Samvaada" with him, with a few people asking him about his opinions on current affairs. He reciprocated very nicely. To sum it up, it was a very thought-provoking speech
The rest of the dances, dramas and a round of RasaPraSHne, followed. Hacchevu KannaDadha deepa, KolaaTa, Ghallu-ghallenutha..... beautifully choreographed and danced.

Our office band performed few folk songs. Some of them were Shravana Banthu NaaDige, KoDagana Koli Nungitha, Naanu KooLikeranga, Nityotsava, Yello Jogappa Ninna Aramane and the super-hit film song - HuTTidhare KannaDA naaDali huTTabeku :-) The show was an instant hit.

There was Karnataka delicacies served for dinner - Joladha Rotti, Husli, KoDbaLe, BisiBeLebaath, AmboDe, Mosaranna, HoLige, Dharwad PeDa. It was very very delicious. A deserving end to a lovely show!

Hats off to the organizers for providing us with such a lovely, gala event and making it a big success!!