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Telanganites in Atlanta Celebrate Formation of New State

Atlanta,GA: The sentiments of the 40 million people living in the Telangana region were echoed by 700 Telanganites living in Metro Atlanta area on June 7th at an event held at GA Tech Robert Ferst Center to commemorate the 29th State of India. Ravi Chakati and Sivanagulu, folk singers who gained international fame through Maa TV’s Rela-re-Rela Show, rocked the stage along with local talents and artists from others states.

The event was celebrated with a bunch of brilliantly choreographed dances and extraordinarily rendered songs. The program started with the lighting of the lamp by community leader Narender Reddy, Director on the TCI Board and Srijan Joginapally, President of the Telangana Community along with the executive committee and board of directors in the presence of the backstage volunteers.

Event manager and board director Viju Chiluveru introduced the emcees who took over the rest of the program line-up and executed it flawlessly.

The cultural program started with a dance by Manasvi Gaddam which was followed by an extraordinary group dance ‘Lamba, Lamba’, choreographed by Neelima Gaddmanugu who has been helping the organization for several years. Later a child prodigy played guitar to a film song. The kick-off of the first segment by guest artists,Raviand Sivanagulu, raised the excitement in the audience. This was followed by the first stellar Kolaatam folk dance of the night by ten artists of all ages to the song ‘Podala Podala Gatla Naduma’ choreographed by young dancer, Geetika Jape. The other artists were Geetika Jape, Sonal jape, Renuka durgam, Tanuja Jape, Kanchan Jape, Chaitanya Nakkerty, Sameeksha Gaherwar, Neetu Chauhan, Akhila Ballari and Rupa Pannela. Another superb dance by Vishwadha Gunda, who came all the way fromAlabamawas well-received and praised by the audience.

The audience also paid homage to all those who sacrificed their lives for Telangana.

Another folk dance to the song ‘Golla Mallamma’ by little kids Srinidhi Vangala, Srihitha Chakilam, Siri Reddy & Tanvitha Kotla was a great hit. Several songs in Telugu and Hindi were rendered by Srinivas Durgam, Janardhan Pannela, Suchetha Dontula fromSouth Carolinaand Renuka Reddy fromNorth Carolina. A pinch of variety was added to the event with a Qawali with a medley of hit Hindi Songs. This was choreographed by Maitreyi Gangaraju a well-known artist and dance teacher. The artists of this dance werePraneeth,Ala, Madhurima, Charugundla, Sravani, Rachakulla, Venkat, Gadam, Vinod, Nagula, Rajani, Vootla, Neetu, Singh and Srinivas Durgam.

Another superbly choreographed group dance, celebrating Bonaalu – a festival offering prayers to the Goddess Ammavaru. Geetika Jape coordinating this item and received several accolades and a standing ovation from audience.

Emcees of the night, Anitha Vangala, Swapna Katta, Madhurima Charugandla and Sunitha Chakilam presented the event with several improvisations interspersed with  information about the struggle Telangana state and trivia questions for the audience.

Narender Reddy in his message said, “Now that we regained our own State we have a major responsibility of rebuilding the land and turn it into a golden region”. He urged every Telanganite to contribute their innovative ideas to transforming Telangana into a model state.

Later he invited Ashok Kumar, Deputy Consul from the Consulate of India inAtlantawho addressed the audience and congratulated the Telangana community on the new state.

Nanda Chatla, Mahesh Nilagiri and Raghu Reddy led the volunteers group. Edukondalu led the team to decorate the stage. The officers of Executive Committee Venkat Veeraneni, Prabhakar Boyapally and Mahesh Nilagiri supported in various departments. Vivek Reddy, Karunakar Reddy Asireddy and other Directors of the Board, along with Past President Rathnakar Elugunti, Directrors Prashanthi Asireddy, Ramadevi Boyapally and Madhavi Gangsani were present at the venue to oversee the activities.

The event ended with the final segment byRaviand Sivanagulu by singing a song written by Viju Chiluveru ‘Choodu, Choodu, Choodavamma Naa Telangana’. The audience left with extreme level of contentment and will eagerly look forward to TCI next major event Bathukamma in the month September.

More information and event photos at www.telanganacommunity.org.

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