Text Box: Dear Friends, Text Box: Austin’s Got Talent– wouldn’t you agree? SAREGAMA 2008, held on May 3 at Lanier HS, was a spectacular showcase of the extensive talents of our Malayalee community. THANK YOU to the more than 65 participants who dazzled us with the arts of Dance (Fusion, Folk and Classical), Music (Instrumental, Vocal), and Fashion! Also, special thanks to our judges who had the extremely difficult task of discerning best performances. The following people were recognized for their breathtaking performances: Best Fancy Dress Shika Menon Best Solo Performance Below Age 5 — Manu Perinchery — Poetry Recital Ages 5-10 — Malavika Perinchery — Bharatanatyam Ages 11-15 — Kevin Thomas — Fusion Dance Ages 16 & above — Divya Shankar — Bharatanatyam Best Group Performance Below Age 16 — Rhea Kheni, Anusha Vavilikolanu, Shruti Prasad, Nikita Nair, Manasa Prasad, Piya Deshpande, Tanvi Rao & Sruthi Arun — Folk Dance Ages 16 & above — Ajith Varghese & Priya Varghese — Duet “Rhythmia” — Sruthi Renil, Neelima Anup, Sarita Warrier & Suja Pillai— Fusion Dance We express our gratitude to Professor Unnithan and his students who shared their love for the Malayalam language and culture. A show like this would be impossible without the support from each one of you and our sponsors. Check out pictures for SAREGAMA 2008 on Page 3 of this newsletter. The rest will be posted online here. The DVD for SAREGAMA will be available for purchase for $5. If interested, please contact Sijith Ganga (512)- 249– 8130. From beyond the stage to sports, our community has exhibited some authentic skills. Firsthand we witnessed three-legged, balloon–toss, and lemon drop champions reign over the fields of the Elizabeth Milburn Park on April 19th at the Annual GAMA Picnic. Blessed with clear skies, new faces, games galore and scintillating barbeque, the event was attended by over 150 people within our community– it was a perfect way to let loose and enjoy Austin’s great outdoors! To top it all off, we were able to donate a large box of non-perishable items to the Salvation Army with your generous contributions. Pictures can be viewed online, here, and on Page 4 of this newsletter. The GAMA Board is working hard to keep your schedule engaged. There are volunteering opportunities with the Salvation Army every 3rd Saturday of the month. This is a wonderful way for kids to accumulate volunteer credit hours. The next volunteer session will be on June 21, 2008. Please contact Geetha (512)- 249-8457 or Marita (512)-873-7389 for more information. Keep checking our website at www.gama-austin.com for information regarding upcoming events such as movies, Onam and other community events. Finally, we hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend and leave you with a poem by Moina Michael, written in 1918 in honor of fallen heroes. We cherish too, the Poppy red That grows on fields where valor led, It seems to signal to the skies That blood of heroes never dies. Text Box: GAMA Newsletter Text Box: Greater Austin Malayalee Association May 2008

Thank you,

GAMA Governing Board

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