[edit] Vibha Khel Mela 2009: A resounding success yet again

Shama Perveen

Khel mela is one of the major flagship charity events organized annually by Vibha to help raise funds for projects supporting the under-privileged children in India. This year, Khel Mela 2009 was organized at the Riverwood high school gymnasium in Fulton county on March 21. It was a fun-filled day with indoor table tennis and chess tournaments and various other awareness events. Since it’s inception in 1991, Vibha has strived continuously to create brighter futures for underprivileged children around the world. The success of fund-raising events like the Khel Mela can not only be measured by the number of people who register to participate each year but primarily by the growing network of volunteers who pledge to make Vibha and its objectives a success. Set up in 1996, the Atlanta chapter was one of the first few Vibha action centers in the US. Over past two decades, the Vibha family has grown from a few volunteers in one state to over 825 active volunteers spread across the US and India. Several projects are planned and executed annually through this strong volunteer fraternity.

The Khel Mela event this year witnessed an enthusiastic crowd from all age-groups and occupation. As the day unfolded, the Riverwood gymnasium was packed with cheerful abundance - kids, accompanying parents and adult participants - all eager to compete against each other and claim ownership on the titles. The event was facilitated largely in part due to the generous sponsorship by Sanket Systems. Along with the patrons, volunteers and participating audience; Vibha extends special thanks to the faculty, staff and students of Riverwood high school. Without their support and cheerful camaraderie, the seventh annual Khel Mela 2009 would not have been a fruitful charitable event this year as well.

[edit] Chess tournament

The chess tournament was held in the K-3, K-6, K-9, and open categories. Special thanks go to Steve Schneider who helped coordinate the chess tournaments throughout the day. Steve is the founder and director of the chess school Championship Chess, and author of the Scholastic Chess Series. He also owns a chess club and has coached several kids at the state and national level. Coach Steve is currently developing a network of Affiliate instructors in cities across America to further his vision of providing strong chess programs for children across the country. Says Steve, “this (Khel Mela) is a noble cause and I enjoy doing it”. Steve donated 10% of his books and equipment sales to Vibha. This is the seventh year that Steve has provided his valuable time and efforts as the chess tournament director and his continued participation in this endeavor is sincerely appreciated.

The tournament used the standard Swiss-system format, which allows everyone, including those who have lost matches, to continue playing to the end. The primary and elementary school divisions played a fast chess game in which players were assigned other partners as soon as their match ended. They did not have to wait for everyone else to finish before they could play their next match, as in most tournaments. This allowed participants to play as many as 7 matches in a span of three hours and generated great energy and excitement among the children. For the open division, the time control used was Sudden Death / 30 minutes (SD/30), meaning each player had a maximum of 30 minutes play per match, after which a winner or a tie was declared. After exciting round of matches, young Gururaj Deshpande emerged the winner in the K-3 category while Alex Pu and Anuhyu Kasam were the first and second runners up in that category. Saitej Guttikonda took home the title in the K-6 category as Prashanth Sampathkumar and Tarun Ramesh were declared the first and second runners up. Previous year’s K-6 winner Rahul Maran clinched the title yet again in the K-9 category this year, as Anvesh Cheemakurthy and Apurva Kasam took home the first and second runners up trophies. In the open category, Pankaj Bolaki was declared the winner. With competitions getting tougher each year, this was a much-deserved win for the Vibha volunteer.

[edit] Table Tennis

The Table Tennis tournament was held for singles, doubles, mixed doubles and junior singles (under 15) categories. While few previous champions played in the tournament this year, the event witnessed the participation from few new endowed players. As the matches under the various divisions unfolded, the tension kept the heart racing and adrenaline pumping in the players as well as the audience.

The men’s singles event is fiercely competed every year, and this year was no exception. In a scintillating countdown, Michiya Suzuki, despite his leg injury, emerged the winner in the men’s singles against Akshay Hattangadi. Michiya Suzuki continued to play excellently and was the winner along with Sachin Patil in the men’s doubles category as well. The pair defeated the opponent pair Akshay Hattangadi and Ram Gopalkrishna.

It is encouraging to see increased turnouts for women players in the table tennis tournaments at the Khel Mela every year. This year, in the women’s singles category, Patsy clinched the title by defeating Rinku in an exciting game. In the under 15 (junior’s) category, last year’s winner Aadil Omar beat Anjun to clinch the junior’s singles title yet again. The mixed doubles finalists were the well-known father daughter pair – Hanif Omar and Sameera Omar, who played against and defeated Ram Gopalkrishna and Patsy to claim the trophy. This was a great comeback for the Omars after their last year’s defeat at the hands of Miss Hu and Shak Shaheed. Previously, at the Khel Mela 2008, a teams tournament was included to add some more excitement to the table tennis matches. Continuing the trend, this year too, each team was assigned 3-4 players, and each round consisted of 1 doubles matches and 2 singles matches. After a very entertaining round of several matches, the winners this year comprised of Ram Gopalkrishna, Akshay Hattangadi and Satish Vasa, while the runners up were Kamat, Rao, Shenoy and Benegal.

You can also help: Come join us </br> Vibha is not only an organization, but a movement to make a positive difference in the lives of the millions of underprivileged children in India. For a complete listing of projects supported by Vibha please visit Vibha Projects. Charity events like these raise money essentially for schooling for poor children in India and for American children’s charities, and we would be grateful for any donation you could make. Please help us help them.

If you would like to enroll in our automatic donation program “Help Them Grow” (HTG), please visit Contribute to HTG page. Non-monetary contributions in the form of volunteer work forms the backbone of this organization. Please visit our website to learn about our upcoming entertaining fund raisers and Volunteer page about how you can get involved. Come join us build a better today for a fruitful tomorrow.

This press release appeared in the May issue of Khabar. It was written by Shama Perveen.