Dear Kutumba Members,
It has been a pleasure for me, my wife Preetha and our family to be part of our larger family Shivalli Kutumba of North America, for past 4+ years. The happiness of serving Kutumba in various roles has compounded ever since I have been advised to hold and lead as Chairman by the esteemed board of directors and executive committee and other mentors in Kutumba.
My and many other Kutumba founders’ experience is that – what we miss the most about our life back in India is our culture and traditions from back home. Kutumba has successfully achieved this unmet need of our south canara vipra community under able leadership of presidents and chairman in past 4 yrs, showcasing several beautiful cultural programs, festivals and two very successful Sammilanas’. Kutumba has done many charitable initiatives both here in our ‘Karma Bhoomi’ and back at our ‘Janma Bhoomi’ and has created a feeling of generous extended families. We can now not only be proud of yet practice our unique culture! Thanks to Kutumba.
We at Kutumba have reached close to 1000 members, with many new chapter presidents, committee chairs, zonal advisors and board members, eager to serve you all and take Kutumba to new heights, building on the strong basis laid by the founders and pioneering initial leadership. It has been evident by the growth and glory of Kutumba that it is seething with extraordinary talent, all of which, just needs to be channeled in the right direction. It is of immense satisfaction that the youth involvement and talent encouragement initiative by ‘Yuva Vedike’ committee has borne rich and rapid yield in this stride.
Kutumba is planning many new initiatives in coming years. ‘Tulu Shaale’ is being formed to develop and encourage ‘Shivalli Tulu’ curricula and books conducive for learning for our next generation to develop familiarity to our language. One other initiative from the Board has been to bring ‘Global Kutumba’ under one platform as we see the world shrinking and our Kutumba members moving to new pastures globally.
It would also be our duty to keep the momentum built by our leadership and pass the torch of glory about our culture to the upcoming generation which is minimally exposed to our great traditions and thousands of years-old rich cultures. Let us all come together and pool our energy and resources and work towards growing the family tree, building a safety net for Kutumba members across the country. Let us continue our culture of encouraging the young and revering the elderly with a multitude of Kutumba programs, that have been organized by our dedicated executive team and committee chairs. Please feel free to suggest any new ideas to improve as we grow our Kutumba.
On behalf of all our Directors on Board and my family, I thank all the people in Kutumba volunteering at various levels and encourage Kutumba members to keep it lively, attend all programs and spread the word of beauty of being a part of a great community across.
Warm Wishes,
Dr. Manmohan Katpadi
Chair, BOD