Mangalore : The participants of the 12th annual goodu deepa competition organized by TV channel Namma Kudla at Kudroli Gokarnanatha Temple on Oct 23, Sunday, made and exhibited over 600 goodu deepas.

The event was organized with the purpose of keeping alive traditions associated with Diwali and to give the people of Mangalore a chance to exhibit their talents. 

Many people participated in the contest and created attractive goodu deepas out of colored paper, bamboo, and colored lights in the traditional, modern, and unique categories. The winners of the first and the second prizes received a gold medal each. Ten consolation prizes were also given for each category.

The prestigious Namma Tuluver Award was conferred on Dr. Shantaram Shetty, the vice chancellor of Nitte University,; ‘Namma Kudla 2011 Award’ was conferred on dance guru Master Vittal; and the Bala Prathibhe Award was conferred on artiste Prihali on the occasion. 

Chandrashekar Suvarna of Suvarna Arts Mulky and his team presented a programme  ‘Tulunada Vaibhava’ and dance artistes such as Vibha Lakshmi, Dinesh Attavar, Jnaneshwari Joshi, Mayuri Ullal, and others also performed. Kasturi presented a music event. The entire programme was telecast live on V4 Live Channel.

H S Sairam, President and Administrator officer, Sri Gokarnatha Kshethra, Raghavendra Kulur, Vice president, Dr BG Suvarna, Trustee and B P Karkera, founder of Namma Kudla present on the occasion.

Navaneet Shetty Kadri, Bhaskar Rai Kukkuvalli and Ramesh Kotian compered the programme.