“Namo Brigade” carried out an impressive bike rally in the city in support of Narendra Modi
ENARADA, Mangalore, August 15, 2013:
Photos and Text By CD Souza
Dakshina Kannada was resplendent with myriad colours as part of the independence day celebrations.
The city wore a festive look as people were out on the roads to observe independence day in their own style, convenience and comfort.
For school and college students it was compulsory to attend the celebrations in their respective educational institutions and once the celebrations were over they swarmed the malls or cinema theatres to celebrate their day’s ‘independence’ from hectic everyday activities of schools and colleges.
Formal independence day celebrations were held at Nehru Maidan with District-in –charge minister Ramanath Rai hoisting the tricolor and receiving guard of honour.
DC N Prakash, IGP Pratap Reddy, ZP CEO Tulasi Maddideni, SP Abhishek Goyal, police commissioner Manish Karbikar, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, MLC Monappa Bhandary, Bishop Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza, Sadanand Shetty, and others were present on the occasion.
Being a public holiday it was ‘chutti’ for everyone and many of them thronged to the malls and cinema halls.
For some it was a shopping day as many firms are offering fabulous discounts as part of their annual monsoon sale. For movie buffs it is time to enjoy a movie or two and eat out with friends. That is why one could see long queues in front of the cinema theatres in the malls.
Vivek Kamath, student of a city-based college is enjoying his holiday from hectic college schedule and he ‘wants to make the best of the holiday that has come on my way after a long gap’. He has booked his tickets for a movie in advance and plans to lunch out with friends.
The malls were also decorated in orange, white and green colour balloons, umbrellas and decorations. The mannequins in the showrooms were also dressed in clothes depicting these colours.
There were celebrations galore in different parts of the city. The “Namo Brigade” carried out an impressive bike rally in the city in support of Narendra Modi becoming the next Prime Minister of India. Thousands of fans of Namo participated in the bike rally with saffron flags on the bikes with slogans like Bharat Mata ki jai. The rally which started from Karavali utsav ground covering areas like lalbagh, jyothi circle, Hampankatta, K S Rao Road and came back to Karavali Utsav ground.
Owners of Royal Enfield in the city also created a flutter as hundreds of owners of this prestigious ‘bullet’ went round announcing their arrival with their dug-dug sound.
A handful of Congress youth also went on a bike rally in the city which failed to create any impression.
While it was a day of independence for many in many ways for some daily wage labourers, it was day as usual. They went on with their usual work in a bid to earn their daily roti.
Enarada captured this scene from a group doing the pavement work near SKDCC bank near Kodialbail. Yellamma, who is from Bagalkot, is working in the city for the past 9 months. She says she work during holidays also except Sundays as she cannot afford to take time off in the middle of the week.
Another independence day has come and it life will be back to normal after a day’s holiday. It was indeed good to see a festive mood in the city with people irrespective of religion and race observing it in their own possible way.
