LONDON Feb 6: If everything goes as planned by Keraleeyam,London Olympics will get the splashing glow from the Gods own country as its inaugural function will be decorated with a demo race of the Kerala snake boats.

The high-flying snake boat racing teams will dress up for the event taking place in the Thames river as part of the inauguration of Canoeing and Kayaking events in White Water Canoe Centre in Broxbourne,Hertfordshire.

Preliminary discussions on the event was held at the House of Commons in London where Keith Vaz,Member of British Parliament was present. Keraleeyam was represented by its Vice President R. Ajith Kumar,Secretary General N.R. Harikumar,Treasurer Sarosh P. Abraham and they submitted a detailed proposal for the demo race.

Following theses discussions a coordination cell has been constituted at Mr Vaz’s office in West Minister at the British Parliament. To familiarise the snake boats in London and as a pilot race of the Olympic event it has been proposed to conduct another demo race as part of the 156th Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in July,2010 which will have one or two snake boats.

The organizing committee of the London Olympics will watch this event and final nod for the Olympics race will be given after this.

The master brain behind this idea in UK is T Haridas, chairman of Kerala Group of Restaurants. It was Mr T Haridas who mooted the idea which was taken up with all excitement by the people involved.

This websites 2009 UK Malayalee magazine had its own advert displaying a picture of the famous Kerala boat race on the Thames river. The advert was a huge hit with Malayalees disucssing whether this could become a reality or not. After seeing the advert many thought that the boat race has already happened on Thames. We are glad that it is now likely to become a reality.

Mr Haridas held a meeting with Malayalee community leaders and other officials to facilitate the idea. The meeting held at Malabar Junction Restaurant was attended by G. Sasankan,Keraleeyam Representative in UK,business entrepreneur Pradeep Menon,Chandra Babu from Croydon,Harish Raju,Sneha Patel,Rahoof and the Chief Security officer from Indian High commission.

Keraleeyam plans to line up five major snake boats from Kerala as part of the Olympic race. These boats will be shipped to London taking 20 days of travel. A team comprising of 500 oarsmen will be flown to London to paddle these boats. A similar event cannot be traced anywhere in the world which can showcase Kerala at its maximum potential,said P.V.Abdul Wahab,Chairman,Global Kerala Initiative.

Mr Wahab added that the project proposal of the race has been submitted to Sebastian Coe,the Chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG), Kumari Shelja,Minister for Tourism,Govt. of India,Mr M.S. Gill, Minister for Sports,Govt. of India and Dr Shashi Tharoor,Minister of State for External Affairs,Govt. of India.

A proposal has been submitted to the Industries Department,Govt of Kerala which is mulling over an investors meet in London in connection with this event.

A snake-boat is manned by four helmsmen,25 singers and 100-125 oarsmen,who row in unison to the fast rhythm of vanchipattu (song of boatmen).