Dasa Jayanthi:
The first program of the year was Dasa Jayanthi. Usually we were dependent on invited classical musicians who were difficult to come by and so we started, in addition to solo songs by members, singing of bhajan songs guided by Dr. Ullal, which could be sung in group by most of us. One of the highlights of the Dasa Jayanthi in this year was a Harikatha that was performed by Mr. Purushottam Nayakbon Purandara Dasa’s life. Harikatha as you may all know is a unique form of storytelling with songs and narration. An essay competition on Purandara Dasa was conducted and was won by Mrs Jayashree Jagannath.
Marala Mallige:
Marala Mallige used to be handwritten until this year. In this year, we ensured to have the handwritten Marala Mallige to be published using MS Publisher. We also managed to produce one issue for every function.
Inter-house competitions:
Competitions, both sports and non-sports which included chess, carom, scrabble, were between the houses and the points were added up till the end of the year and the winning house was awarded a rolling trophy. A yearlong photography competition conducted for the members was designed to encourage photography.
Rajyothsava Day – 29th Nov 1996:
Rajyothsava Day is the main function of KKK high-lighting the rich cultural heritage of our State. Keeping this in mind, we tried our best to steer the presentations towards cultural from filmy and towards Kannada from Hindi. Mrs. Geetha Vasuki introduced Mr.Ajay Ghosh, an artist supplying the stage properties to KKK and he has been with us since then! The function consisted of a variety of dances such as Umbrella Dance, Bharatha Natya, Kolata, Orchestra, Spanish dance etc.
Karnataka Darshana, the mega event was well admired by all and it presented a piece of cultural activity of every area of Karnataka including the energetic bhootha koala and karaga, culminating in spectacular Jamboo savari. Prof. B.M. Hegde who happened to be in Kuwait, addressed the audience and also participated with us.
AGM/Christmas:
The concluding program of the year is the AGM cum Christmas celebrations. Address by Mr. Sharfuddin of Karnataka Muslim Association on harmony, inter-house five-minute skit competition, a skit on the birth of Jesus were unique activities. This year, awarding high performers in Board exams was introduced. Also a first timer was donation to institutions in Karnataka, an idea borrowed from our sister Associations. A fourth of the annual budget was donated to worthy institutions in Karnataka, though it was only KD 800! This was possible from the co-operation of members who reduced their stage presentation expenses by innovations and improvisations. Notably, Purushottam Nayak who spent nearly KD 100 from his pocket for his unique shadow play presentation.
The AGM / Christmas event of this year was a very important one as this day marked the release of a Directory of members for the first time. The Directory was sponsored by Oriental Restaurant, prepared in MS Publisher and printed on an inkjet printer; the beautiful cover (sketch of a dhow) was designed by Dr. Pattansetti.