Fr. Wilson Andrade, OFM Cap., who completed 25 years of Sacerdotal Ordination and newly elected Christian members of the recently held Gram Panchayat elections were felicitated by the community after the Sunday mass on 23 May.

Vice President of the parish council Felix Pinto welcomed and introduced the priest to the gathered and congratulated him in his service to God and humanity. In response Fr. Wilson remembered and thanked concerned who made it easier for him in his priestly journey of 25 years.

Later Catholic Sabha president Charles Lewis introduced the elected members Arun Fernandes, Jyothi Lewis, Ronald Menezes and Thomas Dsouza to the crowd. Parish priest Fr. J B D Souza honored them by bestowing a shawl, garlanding and by offering a fruit basket.

Mr. Thomas Dsouza on behalf of the elected spoke and said that it is indeed a great achievement that the small church with 250 families has sent 4 members to the local council and called upon the Christians to come out of the church compound and involve themselves in service to the society and real politics.

The meet ended with the thanks giving hymn.

Annual First Communion day was celebrated at the Kemmannu Church recently. In all 7 children received Jesus in flesh and blood for the first time in their life. It is the second sacrament in Christian child’s life after Baptism.

The children were taught catechism by Tejju teacher, who is rendering her service to the children for the last several years. All readings of the day and other liturgy service were conducted by the children themselves. Parish priest Fr. J B Dsouza administered the holy sacrament to the children.

In the end, the children and their parents had a breakfast with the parish priest and the guest priest. 

Before that they camped outside the counting centre here at the MGM Grounds on Monday with garlands and sweets, along with huge groups of their supporters.

In the Udyavara Grama Panchayat, for instance, the election was fought almost entirely on local issues like envoiournment, resulting in a mishmash of candidates from rival political ideologies on one issue and won almost 19 leaving behind the congress just 6 seats and BJP 6. Stranger events unfolded also with the Kallianpura ward 3. Candidate backed with envouirmental issue won the election where when the report last came in came in the BJP was leading with 13 and the congress with 5 Seats.

In an interesting development a husband and wife who contested from Kemmannu Grama Panchayat won both the seats. Brother and sister who contested from someshwar won the seats, Subash Shetty a candidate from kinnigolis kemral gram panchayat who met an accident and died earlier before the election was declared elected after the counting.

Sharq United lifts KCS Trophy 2010

As the great summer of Kuwait being not very far, Sharq United Kuwait was high in spirits to host Kuwait Computer Services (KCS) Cricket Tournament. Under the kind patronage of Mr. Tyagarajan, the KCS Trophy 2010 kicked-off at 6am sharp on bright and sunny Friday, 7^th of May for a day-long cricket festival with sportive cricketers on the field and supportive fans off the field.

This well-planned event was meticulously devised by Patric Pinto – President of Sharq United along with his enthusiastic mates at the Executive Committee. Fixtures for this 8-team event were sorted in advance in the presence of all team captains.

After the preliminary rounds, four teams made it to the semi-final stage. In the first semi-final match, Sharq United scored 90 in the allotted 10 overs and beat Kirby Cricketers convincingly by 32 runs with K.S. Kalappa of Sharq United producing best bowling figures of the tourney – taking 4 wickets and conceding only 3 runs in his quota of 2 overs.

Similar scores were seen in the second semi-final match as well. JTC Team X-Treme scored 91 in 10 overs batting first. In their chase, Southern Sizzlers managed to put up a total of 58 runs.

Finally, all eyes from the numerous spectators that included spouses and children of players were glued to the heroes on the field for the grand finale. JTC Team X-Treme batted first and scored 61 runs in their allotted 10 overs. Led by Arthur Lewis, Sharq United reached their target in 9 overs leading to some memorable celebrations - both on and off the field!

Main sponsor’s of the event were Kuwait Computer Services represented at the venue by Mr. Tyagarajan. Co-Sponsor’s included Caesar’s Group represented by Mr. S.K. Mishra and Mr. K.S. Kalappa; and Gulf Insurance Company represented by Mr. Manoj Sharma.

Alwyn Fernandes and Manoj Mishra anchored the closing ceremonies and the list of winners is here below:

KCS 2010 Trophy Winner: Sharq United

Runners Up: JTC Team X-Treme

Man of the Series: Arthur Lewis (Sharq United)

Man of the Final Match: Sandip D’Douza (JTC Team X-Treme)

Best Batsman: Sandip Platina (JTC Team X-Treme)

Best Bowler: K.S. Kalappa (Sharq United)

During the presentation ceremony, two special felicitations were included as below:

Manoj Mishra was awarded with a memento for his two short stories, which were recently published: Shrinking Woman & Other Stories; and Vanilla Desires & Other Stories.

Vincent D’Souza was awarded with a souvenir of appreciation for his praiseworthy contribution towards Sharq United.

Patric extended his warmest thanks to Mr. Lawrence D’Souza and Mr. Ghazi Al Abdul Razzak of Caesars Group; Gulf Insurance Company; and Mr. Richard Nazareth for their continuous support for Sharq United events.

Alwyn thanked each and every member of Sharq United for their enthusiastic attitude from dawn to dusk and also expressed his sincere gratitude to every person off the field for making this tournament a success. Mr. Tygarajan was gracious to acknowledge the efforts and spirits of Sharq United and ensured continued support in the future.

The pictures herewith speak for themselves.