Kannada centre innauguration

New Zealand Kannada Koota, one of the most active of Kiwi Indian associations in the country, now has a new home at the Auckland City Councils Fickling Centre in Three Kings, Auckland.

National Party MP Jackie Blue inaugurated the associations offices known to members as Koota on August 21. A Ganesh Puja performed by one of the members marked the opening of the facility, which also houses a small but growing library of Kannada and English books, magazines and publications.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Blue commended the dedication of the office bearers to the activities of the Koota and their hard work and follow up in finally obtaining the premises.

Koota President Ravishankar welcomed the gathering and Secretary Prakash Biradar briefly outlined how the association systematically went about pursuing its goal of setting up the facility. Also present at the opening were National Party Northern Region Deputy Chair Ram Rai, Bharatiya Samaj Chairman Jeet Sachdev, Auckland Indian Associations Chandubhai Daji, New Zealand Indian Central Association (NZICA) President Paul Singh Bains and other community leaders.

Mr Ravishankar and Mr Biradar thanked Dr Blue, Opposition and Labour Party leader Phil Goff, Mr Ram Rai, Mr Jeet Sachdev, NZICA former President Ratilal Champaneri and former General Secretary Veer Khar, Auckland Indian Associations Chandubhai Daji, Harshad Patel and Takorbhai Parbhu for their help in making the new centre possible.

The library was originally housed at the Mahatma Gandhi Centre at Eden Terrace but had to move out when the Centre established its own library about a year ago. It was housed temporarily in the garage of member Natesh Marappas home while the association canvassed for a permanent location. The Koota thanked Mr Marappa for his generous gesture of housing the library for nine months.

The aim of the Koota comprising mainly of people hailing from the southern, Kannada-speaking state of Karnataka is to promote, preserve and maintain the cultural and linguistic heritage of the state while enriching the diverse cultural mosaic of New Zealand with the best of Indian traditions. It also helps new immigrants from Karnataka settle in New Zealand and liaises with similar communities and societies in New Zealand and in India.

The Koota is one of the first Indian associations to open a well equipped library of some 5000 Kannada Books and 500 children's books and comics, apart from a fast growing video cassette, VCD and DVD library. Popular Kannada and English weekly and monthly magazines are also subscribed to and made available for members.

With a view to helping children keep in touch with Kannada which is the third oldest language of India reading, writing and speaking in Kannada the Koota has organises weekly Kannada classes. Children are also taught Dance, Music and Creative art.

Members find an excellent platform to exhibit and nurture the artistic talents of their young ones as well as their own during the Kootas cultural events. Its members actively participate in events organized by Indian associations on occasions like Independence Day, Republic day and Diwali besides other regional festivals.

Apart from its Annual Sports Day, the Koota jointly organises and participates in inter-association cricket matches and the overall cricket championship for all Indian state associations.

It also publishes a quarterly, bilingual (Kannada and English) house magazine, named Kiwi Kannadiga, featuring articles, poems, cartoons, write-ups, travelogues and member-introductions with separate sections for women and children.

Every Thursday at 7.05 PM the Koota's weekly half-hour broadcast, Kannada Vani, goes on air on Auckland's Planet FM 104.6. It includes snippets of folk theatre, announcements about coming events and nostalgic native sounds and content from the distant land of Karnataka.

Now that it has its own premises, the Koota plans to step up its activities with programmes involving the youth, health and wellbeing as well as those directed at senior citizens. It plans to fund these programmes with sponsorships.

Initially, the premises will be open on weekends but a roster of volunteers will be drawn up so that there would be someone to attend to duties on most evenings, Mr Biradar told Indian Weekender.