comment no: 1
Congratulation to the organizers! We had a wonderful time at the Kaveri-Akka world Kannada Conference. On the same day I was able to see and hear Dr. Byrappa, Channaveera Kanavi, Bhavaggeethes from Pallavi , standup comedy from Dr. Puttu Rao, hilarious drama from various groups, Dances and film hits from S.P Balasubramaniam, Food was good too. There were some minor problems mainly caused by rain. I am sure there are various groups wants to use the opportunity for self promotion. But I can take the good part and keep it in my memory and discard the rest. Thanks for the wonderful volunteer work done by various committee members/coordinators. Here are some suggestions: The books printed for the occasion is a good idea and it has some excellent articles with some new ideas for future work. It was pleasure to see the web site had all the info and it was well done.
Give some breaks instead of non-stop programs.
Have some time for repeat performance for outstanding display (Pallavi, vidydhara swami)
Keep the programs in rooms not affected by programs from other rooms
More quality control in selecting dramas, artists.
Kannada artists need to be encouraged
Make sure that you have enough rooms/hotels near the conference for all classes of people not just for rich
Keep the speeches from AKKA/Kaveri to bare minimum.
Reduce the cost Conference. by reducing the expenses on
- glossy prinitng with nothing much to read/see(AKKA handout)
- arrange the meeting in a cheaper place in a small city
- keep the commercial interest to minimum
I had hard time finding the feedback link. Can you arrange an open link to send feedback and comments by others.
thanks
Ramesh Basavapatna
comment no: 2
Namaskara Ellarigu,
First of all CONGRATULATIONS to members of the Kaveri Kannada Association for hosting the "AKKA WKC 2006" in a magnificient way.
Thanks to AKKA Exective Committee members, AKKA Directors, AKKA Members and Kannada Koota Presidents for their role and support for the conference.
Thanks to Ravi Dankanikote-Suresh Ramachandran and his entire team for working tirelessly for last 2 years for making dream into reality.
Thanks to Govt. of Karnataka for sending 42 artists (largest ever) from varied fields to entertain us.
For 3 days I enjoyed every bit of it - meeting many Kannadigas, watching entertaining programs, the forums, etc. I was very much impressed by the large number of youth attendance and their activities at the conference.
It was heartening to see that AKKA Charity Foundation (ACF) & Sankara Eye Foundation (SEF) was able raise large amount in support of Hospital project in Banagalore with AKKA's name permanently placed on it.
As we witnessed in Baltiomore, AKKA WKCs getting bigger and better. I request AKKA WKC 2006 Conveners to document the lessons learned and pass it on to AKKA shortly so that we can compile all the lessons learned form 4 WKCs and develop a template/roadmap for the future AKKA WKCs.
Dhanyavadagalu !!!
Ramesh Gowda
comment no: 3
On behalf of Colorado Kannada Koota, I would like to convey Congratulations to AKKA Organization,
Kaveri Kannada Sangha, Participants, Volunteers, and Attendees for the successful 4th AKAA World Kannada Conference.
Regards
Colorado Kannada Koota
Dear Suresh Ramachandran, Ravi Dankanikote and all the Chairpersons and Volunteers:
I am sure you are enjoying the wonderful feeling of happiness that such an accomplishment brings.
I am talking this from my personal experience as the Chairman of Kannada Sammelana-98, in Phoenix,
Arizona where AKKA was born. To borrow a phrase from the famous Basket ball player Charles Barkeley
in this mornings news paper when he was asked if he still wants to be Governor of Alabama he said:
" Yes. I want to speak for people who cannot speak for themselves". I am writing this to you with
that same spirit and share the following sentiments with you:
1. The main stage setting with its carvings was proof how deeply you all felt about our culture.
Congratulations to Haridas for the concept and his friend Narasimhan from Karnataka who made it a reality.
2. I was overwhelmed by the opening video program showing the heritage of Kannadigas and I was in tears
out of happiness. I had never experienced "Aananda Bhashpagalu (tears of Joy)", but I did this time.
Thanks to Ravi Harapanahalli for composing the song and Naga Shankar for this superb presentation.
3. Congratulations to the conveners for recognizing their past presidents and presenting Kaveri Krishnamurthy
and Doddanna Rajashekar. It showed the respect for people who have worked for Kaveri as well the respect you
have for tradition. You have set a very good example for AKKA executives to follow.
4. It was a very wise move to have Ravi Shankar's program for Friday. I just attended his session on meditation
and found it useful for refocusing. I am sure there were a lot of people who derived more benefit and were happy.
5. Most people including me, could not attend many programs they wanted to as we had to walk back and forth from
the Wyndham Hotel to the Convention center for breakfast, lunch and supper. I do not blame the conveners for this.
AKKA representatives should have provided the input to have the food and the programs under one roof.
6. I expected that an old and large organization like Kaveri with the pool of talents it has to have paid more attention to:
* keep the programs on time. I thought we had learnt a lesson from the Fiasco we had in AKKA's 2nd
Sammelana WKC-2002 in Detroit. We definitely need to avoid this in the future and AKKA needs to take a
more pro-active role in this regard.
* The inauguration of the program was a mess. When we invite some one as the Chief guest, we need to
respect it. When the chief minister did not come, it should have been the deputy chief minister. There
was no need to have so many politicians to be on the stage. AKKA is getting too much politicized and for
whose sake. Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa, our leading literary person was in the audience and was not invited on
the stage. I wonder why. We all know how corrupt are the politicians in India and we should learn to
keep AKKA a safe distance so that AKKA will not get politicized and corrupt.
This was written with no malice towards any one but only with the firm hope of improving the process.
In this process some people may get offended but we cannot and should not stop the process of solving
the problems. Every problem has a solution, only if we constantly work at it just like we have all
done in our professions.
Thank you all again for the wonderful conference.
Aathmeeya Vandanegalu,
Hi Kaveri Members/Volunteers.
Three Cheers for the effort you guys have put in to make the AKKA convention a big success.
I personally throroughly enjoyed the programs whatever I could attend. A few problem we did face
because of the rain which was beyond anybody's control.
Anyway my heartfelt congratulations to each and everyone who are part of this entire program.
My personal suggestion:
Rama Suresh
Dear Suresh & Ravi
comment no: 7
Namaskara Sureshavare and Ravi avare
comment no: 8
Dear OrganizersOf Kaveri Akka ,Thanks for your E mail.
comment no: 9
Hello Ravi Avare:
comment no: 10
New York, 10/26/06
comment no: 11
I donot feel that all your emails and phone calls were positive
Please pass on the constuctive comments and critisisms so that we
can have better AKKA conventions.
comment no: 12
I am very disappointed to attend the confernce for following reasons:
food quality and variety was below the standard.
Transportation system from hotel to convention center was deplorable
Numrous delays far various programs sometimes waiting for hours.
Orlando conference was far superior than this.
comment no: 13
Thanks for putting up a great show and excellent
arrangements for 1000's of people. Great event
organization capability was demonstrated by your
group. Please accept our thanks and appreciation.
comment no: 14
Priya Mitrarige nammaskara !!!
comment no: 15
A great job done by all the volunteers.
We truly enjoyed the show.
comment no: 16
Priya adhikarigale Sharanu.
comment no: 17
You all did an excellent job!
comment no: 18
Thank You very much for organising a fabulous
conference. We thoroughly enjoyed and will attend again.
comment no: 19
OCT 27 2006
comment no: 20
Dear Suresh and Ravi,
comment no: 21
Kannada Mitrare,
comment no: 22
Organizing an event of this magnitude is always easier said than
successfully executed. There were some glitches, most visible was the
weather related aspect that would have been hard to foresee. What is
commendable is that you all stepped up to the plate instead of throwing up
your hands, and took the challenge head on. When you look at the overall
net experience, nothing but kudos to the organizers and the volunteers.
If there is one thing I was a little disheartened with, I felt that the
“real people” that made all this work (the behind-the-scenes people)
didn’t get the recognition they deserved.
comment no: 23
Hi MR Suresh and Ravi:
comment no: 24
I have attended every single WKC so far, this program was very well organized as
was the first one in Houston, hats off to you organizers, we should have had our
own coffee stand, starbucks ran with all the money and wasted so much time.
Partaking in good coffee is probably a genuine Kannadiga cultural and social activity.
comment no: 25
Your arrangements were nice and we enjoyed the
convention.Also, when can we buy a video of the cultural
programs?
comment no: 26
Thank you for the thankyou note for participating in WKC 2006.
comment no: 27
Thank you very much.
comment no: 28
This is my first attendance to AKKA. Hats off to all
the members and volunteers of AKKA and Kaveri team for
a job very well done. You all have done a splendid
job, I know it was not an easy task to organise such a
huge conference with only volunteers and a nominal
fees. Iam aware how hard is to have apeaceful and
uneventful get together even with a very small group (
50-100 people), as I was president for a small group
once. No words to appreciate your hard work. Please
ignore negative comments from some members ( who have
never taken any responsible post or volunteered
before).
comment no: 29
Suresh Ramachandra and Ravi Dankanikote
comment no: 30
Kaveri Kannada Koota, hagoo AKKA sahayaka-rigaE': The individual cultural program-items were of high quality; also, we met and heard a whole host
of great litterateurs in the same room. It was hard to select the particular program items to
attend or watch; sacrificing Lunches and Dinners was the easiest decision that anyone could make,
no doubt! The catering service and the menu were not the shining examples in any sense.
The hilarious plays by Alamelu Iyengar and troupe, and Vallisha Shastry and Rangadwani, were perhaps
the best enjoyed plays. The Toronto troupe’s new-age choreographed stage show, and the Ramayana
dance drama by the group from Florida, and Supriya Desai group’s Fusion dance, will be remembered
for their high energy performance, and these were indeed a breath of fresh air.
Through its conferences, Kannada also should grow a little, and Ameri-Kannadigas’ should grow a whole
lot more Reinforcing the identity, providing a continuity, emphasizing the unifying elements among the
Diaspora, and to seek out and encourage the bonding potential are all the compelling conference-objectives
that induce us to participate in a mega-event such as the WKC-2006.
AKKA as an organization was started with the single unifying idea "Kannada," and nothing else.
It is to the credit of the founding AKKA officers’ ( Seetha V. Ramaiah, Jayaswamy, Renuka Ramappa
and Jayaram Nadig, et al ) that the AKKA organization did strive vigilantly in its earlier years to
keep the various affinity groups unified around the central and core idea - Kannada...,
the foremost outcome was the tremendous cooperation and the great feeling of goodwill all around,
particularly during and after the WMKC-2000 at Houston, TX. At that time, the WMKC-2000 dealt with
the Government of Karnataka as equals, by making the Government to be a partner with WMKC-2000
and AKKA, in our endeavor to deliver the cultural side of our mother, Karnataka.
However, during the WKC-2006, it was disdainful to watch Karnataka politics and politicians
entering the AKKA system, and AKKA seeming to be kissing-up to the MLA’s. There is no need,
ever, for AKKA to be getting into, or importing the political mire of Karnataka politics; this
practice is surely harmful for the long term survival of AKKA as an organization. However, Kannadigas’
should not begin to believe that the damage is already done; but for sure we need to be more
vigilant in this area. If we are committed to the idea that is Kannada, and the unifying
organization that is AKKA, and to the efforts to set an example to our next generation, then,
we must be watchful to the perils of bringing politics into AKKA, and the risk of AKKA’s disintegration.
Sincerely,
Subby Subramanyam
comment no: 31
Sincere abhinandanegalu to Shri Ravi Harapanahalli and so many other organizing volunteers for
the great lot of effort they put in through almost 1 1/2 years of deatiled planning. As in any
other endeavour of this magnitude nothing can be perfect and Murphy's First Law " If anything
can go wrong, it will" came into play here. The one thing that did go right was that the
selling and consumption of alchoholic beverages at the conference site was absent per, I hope,
my suggestion which eliminated the asabhya varthane due to excesssive alchohol consumption
exhibited by some at the Orlando meet.
The total disorganization of programming such as giving stage time to any and every person
and/or organization who asked or more accurately demanded it, prevented genuinely valuable
literary programs (such as the once in a lifetime chance to hear Prof Dr S L Byrappa and literary
readings and classical music) being given a reasonable amount of time. If all of the 50 or more
member Kootas insist on each and every one of them being given stage time they should be chosen
by lottery and restricted to a total of 2 hours of lunch and dinner times on the two days and
the 2 hours during the fitst night's registration. It might be well to recall a speech by a
guest speaker from Karnataka at the Detroit meet that Kannada cannot be fostered solely through
westernised or Bollywood imitation "light" entertainment. Maintaining our language in Karnataka
and Bangalore or outside of it requires some serious listening if not reading. Prime time after
lunch and dinner should be reserved for serious literary and non routine performing art.
Having the hotels and the convention center at two widely separated locations and contracting
catering with just one caterer completely detracted from what the meet could have been.
Unfortunately the Orlando meet's centralised location & excellent food service cannot be
duplicated anywhere in the US even as the attendance rises into the several thousands such as
say 8 or 10,000 in the next meet. Too much of a good thing coud'nt become better.
Shri S V Ramaiah's comments about the increasing influence of undesirable politics in what
should remain essentially a cultural activity are most timely. Given that the travel and
stay expenses of the invited artists and speakers and eminent Kannada literary personages
from Karnataka is borne by Karnataka's taxpayers it is but natural that generically corrupt
Karnataka ruling party politicians seek to bring themselves and their entourages and only
those artists that have their current favour. Reminds one of former Indian PM Shri Deve Gowda
requisitioning an entire Air India Boeing 747 aircraft to bring his suddenly very extended
family and friends to the US. There is no other way to stop this two yearly Karnataka state's
revenue plundering other than US based Kannada abhimanis contributing to a fund expressly meant
to finance the travel and stay expenses of invitees from Karnataka. This suggestion is
obviously far easier said than implementable. Air India does have an yearly quota of free
passage to those whose presence furthers Indian literature and art among the diaspora.
Much thanks must go to Shri Amarnath Gowda for his expert legal and free service in obtaining
visas for all artists and eminent literary personages who were invited from Karnataka.
Perhaps the process of obtaining visas should be started almost an year before the meet is
to take place so that all those invited are able to make it to the US in time.
Thank you for giving us an opportunity to comment.
comment no: 32
Congratulations WKC 2006 Team.
Dr. Prabhakara P. Rao
4511 W. Hinsdale Ave
Littleton, CO 80128-2514
303-979-4193 (H)
PrabRao@comcast.net
comment no: 4
Congratulations to all of you who have toiled for long-hours to put up a fantastic show for all Kannadigas,
"the largest gathering of Kannadigas outside of Karnataka."
These two were enough for my coming to the conference and the rest were just icing on the cake. Not that
they were not important or that I did not enjoy them, but to emphasize how this set the tone for the whole
conference. The following are my other sentiments/comments:
Seetha V. Ramaiah, AKKA Director and Trustee
Phoenix, Arizona
Cell Phone No; 480-560-9734
comment no: 5
1. I think every Assn. should select a place where in we have programs, stay and food arrangements under one roof.
I don't how feasible it is. But this will definitely make everyones life simpler. This time people wasted lot
of time in commuting from place to place. People who stayed at Raddison/Marriot have to commute to 3 different
places (ladies in their heavy sarees, high heal shoes was a big problem)
In the meantime either people used to lose interest in coming to the programs or they would have missed the programs
or they were forced to skip lunch or dinner.
I think we should give a serious thought about this.
Coordinator for Ft. Lauderdale
Srigandha Kannada Koota Florida
comment no: 6
It is very nice of you to have written. Though, I had communicated my
views about the AKKA Worlad Conference, I have been meaning to write to
you for sometime. it's better to be late than never.
I would like to congratulate you and the volunteers for organizing one
of the best events in Washington, DC. In terms of the logistics and
efforts put by people, it's an incredible effort. I want to commend you
for the first class arrangements. I never had to wait for more than a
few minutes to register or eat food. That's was incredible, considering
the number of of people: over 4,000!!!
With warm regards, KV
KV Kumar
President & CEO
Business & Strategic Consultants International, Inc.
7702 E. Doubletree Ranch Road, # 300
Scottsdale, Arizona 85258
U.S.A.
It was indeed a very well organised programmes here and there was little
difficult but we understand that part but we all from NY KK enjoyed a lot.
thanks a lot for all the help and support and hearing to us with lot of
patience all the time.
Hope to see u all next time.
As a member of Kannada Koota I would like to mention that we are hosting
couple of programmes from the artists from India, please do check
www.kannadakoota-ny.com for upcoming events and also iwould request your
registration dept to send us email list of NY kannada people so we can send
a mass email for our prgrommes to encourgae the artist. I would really
appreciate that.
regards
Meena Shastry,NY
Congratulatins for your great effort in organizing Kannada Koota. We are proud of
every one of you made the meeting sucessful.
Due to unavoidabe circumstances I was not able to attend the convention.
I will appreciate your cooperation in sending a copy of the Akka magazine to me
My mailing address is Dr. Devegowda Gopal, Gopal animal Hospital, 5344 Nodmandy Blvd
jacksonville Florida 32205.
Sincerely
Devegowda Gopal
It was really great effort from your team. I really liked everything.
Congratulations all the volunteers and organizers for making this big sauces.
Thanks.
-Niranjan Babu
Sangeetha Kannada Koota
Mr. Suresh Ramachandra
Mr.Ravi Dankanikote
It was thoughful of you to send me a note.
Yes, of course what you two and the rest of your team did was superb and
praiseworthy. Some things perhaps could have been better but organizing an
event for 4000 delegates is no easy joke.
Good luck, thank you and may the good God bless you and your team.
T.K.Rao
Suri
Confernce should not be used political purposes.
I demand full refund of the registration fees.
Dr Banagalore Naga Prasanna, PE, CHE, FHIMSS
Rama
Yes. The event was a great success, it was very well
organised, quality of the art programs was excellent.
There was excellent performance by Murali, Dr. Raj's
nephew. He looks like very much talented, both his
Kannada and English were excellent, the way he
conducted his singing including the kids was very
excellent.
All in all, I can say that the program was very much
above expectations.
I did not know that 50000 Chapatis were consumed.This
shows that people very much like Chapatis. I think in
the next event the organisers can include Rotti,
Chatnipudi,Benne Dose etc....That will take lot of
preparation and may be even difficult to find the
cooks to cook on a large scale.
Anyway, the program was excellent and all volunteers
deserve to be congratulated.
Sincerely,
Guru.
Thank you.
Dilip and usha Subbarao
It was a great event you had put together. Hats off to you.
I had asked for the dvd of the entire event of the AKKA.
please advise me as to what i need to do.
Uma
Thanks a lot for all our efforts.
Few suggestions for further improvement:
-Transportation was inadequate, 1st day (rainy day) chaotic.
-Try to arrange food & programs in the same building or in adj
buildings which are connected. This will be efficient & help to
improve attendance to programs.
-Last day food was very good. Other days less than expected!
Hopefully, above comments will of help to you.
Love...Rathna & Shankar
Rukmaiah Bhupalam
DEAR RAVI AND SURESH,
WE ENJOYED THE AKKA EVENTS VERY MUCH. I AM SORRY THAT
I COULD NOT EXPRESS OUR THANKS IN PERSON.
THE EVENTS, VENUE AND FOOD ARRANGEMENTS WERE ORGANISED
EXTREMELY WELL AND THE VOLUNTEERS HAS DNE A MONUMENTAL WORK
THANKS AGAIN
B.S. VENKATARAMANA
Food was aweful. Except for the last one, there were no vegetables, at all.
Further, becuae the food was arranged at a different place, we missed too
many programmes. We did not get our money's worth.
C M Ramakrishna
You are 100% right. It was a grand function. The local organizers and
volunteers efforts are commendable. Inspite of bad weather first two days
you guys handled the crowd and made sure the programs ran smoothly despite
some unforseen delays and all went well. We, Kannadigas of USA
really appreciate and thank you.
Sincerely,
Shivarama Bhat
All in all, a job well done.
Thank you. Btw, is a DVD of the program being released anytime soon?
Bhaskar Srinivasiah.
Atlanta, GA.
I and my wife thoroughly
enjoyed the program and met many new friends. I have
to commend you for the endless hours of hard work you
invested in this project.
Vijay Ranganath
Sincerely,
Ranjit Gowda
(202 E Prospect St. Kewanee, IL-61443)
Rowe Sridhar
It was indded our pleasure to be amidst so many kannadigas and
exposed to so many wonderful cultural events. It was great reunion,
we met a lot of our friends, kith & kin. Enjoyed every moment wanted
more time since we could not enjoy parallel events.
Thank you and Congratulations and Good Luck in future endeavors.
Raj & Mala Pandit
This was my first Kannada Conference & I enjoyed very much with my
friends. Looking forward to the next one.
Regards.
Jayashree.
You have put up a great event with lots of
entertainment and excellent food. We once again
thankyou for everything both AKKA and Kaveri teams
have done for the community. Please keep up the good
work. See you all in Toronto. Sorry for the delayed
e-mail.
Namaskara
Rajendraprasad Makam MD.
I am sorry to write this email in December, I was busy and out of country. The
program and arrangements were excellent. It was not such an easy thing to
arrange program, nice food, transporation and to stay. I sincerley thanks both
of you from my heart for your wonderful effort.
I request you one small help. I need a video CD for 'Jamakhandi Madhuve' and
another beautiful drama (krishna from Mangalore in Drama). How can I contact
them to get CD. Please reply to me.
Thanks
Thyagaraj Siddappa
Ellarigu' Namaskara!
It is not often that a Kannada Koota works hard to put up with all the frustrations
and difficulties and still deliver a good Kannada conference; Kaveri and its volunteers
have been high achievers' historically speaking! Even with a few glitches and hiccups
this time around, the WKC-2006 was an uplifting celebration of the idea of "Kannada,"
and well savored and appreciated by all of our friends from Texas. The Kannadiga’ Diaspora
is deeply grateful for all the WKC-2006 volunteers, particularly: Mysore Nataraja, Usha Char,
Shashikala Chandrashekhar, Ravi Dankanikote, Ravi Harapanahalli, Sanjay Rao and Suresh Ramachandran,
to list only a few.
{Conference Secretary for WMKC-2000}
Houston, Texas
September, 14, 2006
P. Harimohan from NYC
It was a grand scale event organised extremely well. Kudos to all of you.
Murali Krishnamurthy
Sankara Eye Foundation, USA