Badaganadu Balaga, Mysore

Thanks and congratulations to everyone who made Haasya Sanje a success!

The month of April 2007 started off with the long-awaited Haasya Sanje programme on the aptly chosen All Fools Day! The Artists Sri Mysore Anand, Sri Narasimha Murthy, Sri Richard Louis and Sri Asadullah Beig lived up to their reputation and regaled the almost full-house at Jaganmohana Palace Auditorium. As organisers, we were also happy at the successful culmination of our efforts despite the Mysore Bandh called for that day by some political parties.

The event coincided with the All Fools Day and provided the Members and their families and friends a long-awaited occasion to enjoy an evening of light hearted laughter. There was however a threat the previous evening that it might have to be called off or even  postponed  to another day due to some political trouble in a nearby village and the concerned political party had called for a Mysore Bandh on our D-Day! The Bandh was scheduled from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and so there was a glimmer of hope that we might be able to go through the programme with a slight delay! Fortunately for us, the Bandh call was not followed rigorously, except that the local transport (Public as well as private) stood withdrawn, resulting in some delay in the arrival of the public - and also the Artists, who came from Bangalore in a taxi - at the venue. So, instead of the scheduled start at 4.30 p.m., the show started off at 5.30 p.m. and went on without any break till almost 8.45 p.m. when the power supply got interrupted and emergency supply was restored in a couple of minutes!

At the venue itself, the famous Jaganmohana Palace Auditorium (see our photo gallery for a glimpse of this wonderful heritage building), an air of anxious waiting prevailed, which soon dissipated as the Artists arrival was announced and without much of speech-making (however, with a very brief Invocation by Smts. Vasantha Venkatesh and Manu Seetharam, and an even briefer welcome by the Vice-President Dr. Y. Narayana Rao), the stage was handed over to the Artists. They did a fine job of introducing themselves, everyone having his own signature tune played out by the accompanying Musicians.

First to entertain the audience with his sedate but subtle jokes was Sri Narasimha Murthy of TV Serials like Silly Lully, etc. fame. The many interesting anecdotes he narrated were appreciated with thunderous applause by the huge crowd of nearly 750-800  which had filled the Auditorium by then. He was followed by Sri Mysore Anand, whose rendering of Cricket Commentaries in various styles and languages, sent the House into rapturous laughter. Next to come on stage was Sri Richard Louis, who entertained the Audience with an entirely different kind of presentation, which was thoroughly enjoyed by the entire crowd. Last on stage was Sri Asadullah Beig, who, with his inimitable style of rendering Shairies in pure Kannada, carved out a niche for himself a in the hearts of the public.

During all this time of nearly 2 ½ hours, not a soul stirred out of the Hall and it was a sight worth watching to see hundreds and hundreds of the audience laughing and enjoying themselves. There are a few photos in our photo gallery to prove this point!

Of course then the inevitable formalities started off: a few crisp comments on the evening  by our Vice-President Sri C.N.Krishnaswamy Rao, presentation of Mementos to the Artists by our President Sri G.S.Subrahmanyam, honouring of the Artists with shawls and fruit baskets by our veteran Sponsor Sri Ilay Alwar, picking up the Lucky Winners of the Lucky Dip Programme by our young Member Kum. Teju, and a very very brief Vote of Thanks to all by Sri Seetharam.

Two or three interesting developments of the evening need however a special mention.

First, the announcement by one of our long-standing Members, Dr. N. Sriram, Bhagwan Pathology Lab, Mysore, of a donation of Rs. 10000 towards the Building Fund, which  was greeted with thunderous applause by the audience.

 Next to speak was Sri Mysore Anand. In his brief speech, Sri Anand appreciated the wonderful audience they had enjoyed having this evening and thanked the Balaga for the opportunity to perform before such a receptive audience. He exhorted more people to come and support the Balaga's Fund-raising campaign and promised to come again and perform if required. He then made the astounding offer of donating Rs. 3000 to the cause on behalf of all his co-artists! That was indeed very gracious of all the Artists!

What was equally interesting was that 2 of the 3 Lucky Dip winners happened to be present in the Hall and, after receiving their prize amounts, they spontaneously decided to donate the respective prize amounts towards the Building Fund!! The third winner was not there to claim the prize amount and hence, after waiting for over 2 weeks, it has now been decided to credit that amount also to the Building Fund. We are sure that had he/she been present, he/she would have also followed suit and donated the amount to the Building Fund! Fair enough, don't you think?

We wish to thank not only these Donors of the evening but also the vast majority of over 800 Donors whose broadminded contributions enabled us to raise a tidy sum of over Rs. 1.53 lakhs after all expenses from this event!! This was much beyond our expectations and credit must be given to all those Members who went out as a team and got the several Donors as well as other Members involved in this venture. This one-month effort has thus brought in a sum almost the size of the next installment to the MUDA site. Special thanks are due to the team made up of Sri B.N.Prabhakar, Sri T.S.Shashidhar, Sri C.S.Krishna Murthy, Sri N.R.Shankar Rao and coordinated by Dr. Y. Narayana Rao. They have shown what can be achieved provided many hands join in and this realization has brought the much needed confidence to our many Members. Well, in the end, every one agreed that the event was a great success - and what do YOU say?