GAMA Annual Picnic 2007

 

April 21st 2007 – Indeed a beautiful sunny day to take a break from the frenzied pace of life and relax in an outdoor setting. With over 45 families attending the annual picnic, it was a wonderful opportunity for all to mingle, make new friends and have loads of fun.

We were kept busy with a variety of games planned by the sports committee. Running race, relay, balloon throw, treasure hunt, and musical chair to name a few. The treasure hunt was my favorite. Renil and group had teams (1 kid+1 adult formed a team) running around the park searching for clues and when they think it is over that’s when the difficult part is. The kids look up to their confused adult partner for answers to questions like “Name the five great lakes”, "how many years does it require a US citizen to live in the United States before running for the office of the President?” etc. The picnic drew to a close with the traditional grand finale of the Tug-of-war.

All the sports did make us hungry and we enjoyed the entire spread especially the barbeque.

Thank you to all who attended the picnic and joined in the fun. We do hope that you and your family had a good time. Photos of the picnic are available on GAMA website. 

 

 

SARE-GAMA 2007

Our own cultural evening, SARE-GAMA 2007 was a resounding success! For an event that was unique and first of its kind, the response was splendid. The evening set stage to an array of 33 scintillating programs, featuring talented artists within our community.

The success of this program owes its credit, first and foremost to the 62 participants, without whose personal commitment and dedication, this event would not have been a reality and secondly to the 200+ audience, whose active engagement set the tone for the evening.  Dance forms ranging from  Indian classical  “Bharatnatyam”, “Kuchipudi”, “Mohiniattam” to the “Kuttanadan  Men’s folk dance”, Fashion Show representing traditional dresses from across India, Skits, Songs, Poetry recitals, Fancy dress and various other group performances enthralled audience for four hours. The richness and variety of programs at SARE-GAMA have yet again proved that there is no dearth of talent within our small and growing community.

At the same function, we honored Dr E.C.G Sudarshan on being conferred the Padma Vibhusan Award from the President of India.

 

Photos of the event have been uploaded to the GAMA website under the Past events category. All participants can receive a free DVD copy of the program by sending an email to the GAMA-Webmaster before June 8th, 2007. Non participants can purchase the DVD of the program at the movie screening of Mayavi on June 17th for $5.

 

 

GAMA Logo Contest – Time to wear your creative hats!

 

GAMA is pleased to announce a competition to design a new association logo. The new logo symbol will be used for the web site, banners, stationery and so on.  

The rules of the competition are outlined below:

- Entry to the competition is open to people of Kerala origin or their descendants, residing in the Greater Austin area.

- Only one entry is accepted per participant.

- The logo design should depict the essence of GAMA – capturing the link with Austin & Kerala

- The logo must be original work.

- Should contain the acronym "GAMA"

- Should degrade well to black-and-white

- GAMA will acquire ownership of all the submitted logos.

- Submission Deadline: 6 pm, July 7th, 2007

- Submission format: Each submission should include the following information and should be sent to GAMA-Webmaster

·         High resolution print-ready scalable vector format such as EPS or Adobe Illustrator AI. Minimum resolution on the image 250 dpi. Minimum recommended dimension 400x400 pixels. Logo must maintain its integrity and should be legible when reduced to a smaller size (200x200 pixels)

·         Design concept / description.

·         Submitter's full name, email address & phone number.

Winner: An independent panel of judges will select the logo that best represents the ideas and spirit of GAMA. Creativity, originality, aesthetics, use of space & color will be used to measure the logo’s merit. Winner will be announced at our Onam celebration (September 8, 2007) and will receive a surprise gift.

We look forward to receiving many varied creative designs from all of you!

 

 

Kids! Something to do for your Summer break…Learn MALAYALAM!!!

GAMA Malayalam classes are starting in June. The course spread over 10 sessions will focus on conversational Malayalam. The registration fee is $10.

The first class is scheduled to meet at Austin Public Library Spicewood springs branch on June 9th from 2 to 4:30 pm. The address is 8637 Spicewood Springs Rd., 78759. Please send an email to skperin@yahoo.com if you are interested in joining.

First Class:2 to 4:30 pm, Saturday, June 9th 2007

Venue: Austin Public Library,

8637 Spicewood Springs Rd.,

Austin -78759

 

 

From the Movie desk

 

Once again thank you members for the great turnout at the screening of the movie YES YOUR HONOUR. The theater was HOUSE FULL!! A very good reason to buy tickets for the June movie screening well in advance to avoid disappointment.

The movie committee is bringing the popular Malayalam movie MAYAVI starring Mammootty & Gopika. Below are the details:

Movie: MAYAVI

Director: Shafi

Cast: Mammootty, Gopika, Manoj K. Jayan, KPAC Lalitha, Salim Kumar, Vijayaraghavan, Sai Kumar, Kochin Haneefa, Mamookoya …

Tickets: Contact any of the GAMA directors, or purchase them online at sulekha or buy them from MGM Indian Food Store

Ticket price: $ 7.00 advance purchase; $ 8.00 at the door (if available).

Date: Sunday, June 17th, 2007 at 3pm

Place of screening: @ Alamo Drafthouse, 409 Colorado Street, Austin 78704

Preview: 

Mayavi tells the story of a handsome guy named Mahi (Mammootty) who always tries to maintain law and order in the society. He is nicknamed Mahi I.A.S. by the people who know him. Mahi is in a dilemma because of the many problems happening in society. He always gives solutions to all these problems which come to his notice. His way of solving problems is quite different. He secretly solves the problems in his own style. “Mahi is not a criminal. He cannot stand injustice. He often takes the fall for his friends, and is a familiar face in prison. He is known to give wrongdoers a taste of their own medicine," narrates Shafi. Gopika plays Indhu, an educated villager in the film, while Manoj K. Jayan plays a bank employee who is found guilty of fraudulence. Mammootty rates Mayavi as a full-fledged entertainer with few serious moments.

Please Note: Parents are advised to watch the movie trailer and decide if it is appropriate for your children to watch.

 

 

Other Community events: Summer Golf Camp for children and youth

Kris Kumar and George Solomon are planning to conduct a FREE Summer Golf Camp. This is an opportunity for our young kids to learn the great game of golf.  Kris Kumar will lead the training session, free of cost. The camp is designed for children 7-15 yrs of age, who are beginning golfers and want to learn the basic fundamentals of golf in a friendly, fun, non-competitive sports camp environment. Campers are also taught golf rules and etiquette, how to play and keep scores on a golf course.

When: 5 sessions, every Saturday (morning) starting June 16, 2007

Where: Tejas Golf Course, Round Rock.

Instructor: Kris Kumar Nair

Expense: $60 (This is on account of Cost of Golf Ball and Golf course fee @ Approx: $10 each session and Golf balls).

All players need to have own club and bag, this may cost from $80 to $150 (Note: Brand Golf clubs cost more).

To register or for details contact:

Kris Kumar : kriskumarnair@hotmail.com  Tel: 512-589-4320

George Solomon: sologeorge@gmail.com

 

 

And finally from the GAMA Webmaster

 

Please visit the GAMA website (http://www.gama-austin.com) for information about our organization, past and upcoming events, and community information of interest to Malayalees.  

The GAMA web site has our current address list. You can search for the addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of Malayalees in Austin. To search for addresses, please visit http://www.gama-austin.com/lookup/address.htm. IMPORTANT: You need a password to search; this is just to provide some minimum security.  The password for everything on this web site is our language (all lower case letters.)

You can also add addresses of new people, your friends, people who are not in our records. Thank you for your help in keeping this list current.

You can email the GAMA webmaster if you have any suggestions/inputs on our events.

This newsletter is available at http://www.gama-austin.com

 

 

Thank You,

GAMA Governing Board