Telugu Association of Greater Greenville (TAGG), SC hosted their dream come true event ‘Ugadi 2008 Gala’ on April 19, 2008, to mark the beginning of the Telugu New Year ‘Sri Sarvadhari Namah Samvatsaram’. The organizers were thrilled to see a near capacity crowd of more than 500 fill the Ahimsa hall at the Vedic Center of Greenville. It is indeed a dream come true for the organizing committee who worked very hard over the years to be where they are now. The event left a great impression on the audience – they were simply awestruck. Every department of organizing such an event had a great fillip from last year.
The stage decoration took the central part of the makeover – very colorful & artistic. Poornima Chaluvadi, Srivalli Kondapalli & Vasavi Manthena painstakingly designed the stage to be a piece of art. It worked wonders as the back drop provided the much needed inspiration for all programs to excel in quality. It was a day to remember to all choreographers as item after item thrilled the audience – which had a big percentage of non-Telugu speaking people. There was never a dull moment during the entire duration of the program which was well over three hours.
The evening began at 5:00 pm with a short social hour where people got a chance to meet old friends and make some new ones over a three course snack. Durga Prasad Nallamotu started the evening and introduced the anchors. Ram Garipalli, Anita Budidi and Ranjeeta Mote carried the roles of anchors with great ease and flair.
The programs kicked off at 5:30 pm with the classical prayer to Lord Ganesha – Sravya Durbha rendering ‘Vathapi Ganapathim Baje’. Following that was the trade mark event of TAGG - ‘The Kid’s fancy dress competition’. Many of the costumes were created with great detail. Judges had a challenge on their hands to pick the winners.
The classical segment of the programming had three other solo dance performances – ‘Bharatha Vedamu’ by Vidya Gudivada, ‘Adivo Alladivo Sri Hari vasamu’ by Sanjana Kondapalli, and ‘Nemaliki Nerpina’ by Pravalika Nallamotu.
The only credit in the genre of skit belonged to coordinator Venu Sama for his maiden comedy ‘Chaduva Majaka’ – providing the much needed laughter. Ram Garipalli showed his omni talent potential by managing roles as diverse as ‘Ravana’ in ‘Ekapathrabhinayam’, one of the anchors for the show and also a role in the above skit.
In the ‘pop culture block’ of the program, there were a host of popular film based and folk based dance numbers, superbly choreographed by a team of dedicated choreographers. The honors for the ‘pop’ segment of the evening deservingly goes to Anita Budidi, Apparao Kondapalli, Arun Kumarappa, Geetha Nallamotu, Jayasri Sunkara, Jyothi Garipalli, Jyoti Garg, Lakshmi Kappagantula, Manjula Bethi, Ranjeeta Mote, Srinivas ChannamRaju, Srivalli Kondapalli, Subhashini Alapati, Sunitha Raj, and Vasavi Manthena.
This year there had been a spate of young choreographers in Samyukta Kappagantula, Sanjana Dinesh, Shravya Budidi, Sravya Durbha, and Vandana Premkumar. They all contributed to the ‘pop’ segment which the audience enjoyed thoroughly.
Everybody present was treated to the full extent of their culinary cravings. Along with Ugadi Pacchadi, traditional Andhra specialties like ‘Gutti Vankaya’, ‘Mamidikaya Pappu’ and ‘Boorelu’ were also served.
‘Ugadi gala’ this year was a grand success thanks to all TAGG committee members Apparao Kondapalli, Dev Sunkara, Deva Gandhi Undamatla, Durga Prasad Nallamotu, Krishna Vallabhaneni, Krishna Vemuri, Prabhakar Budidi, Prasad Patchipulusu, Prashanth Mote, Raju Vatsavai, Ram M. Garipalli, Ramesh Venepally, Ranga Pasumarti, Sasidhara Thammana, Sekhar Kappagantula, Shaker Manne, Sridhar Gangavalli, Sridhar Yarlagadda, Srinivas Varma Channamraju, Surya Narra, Venkata Gullapalli, Venkatesh Pudipeddi, Venkateswara Pitchala, and Venu Sama.
The evening was befitting the special occasion. More info about the association and the event can be found at www.taggsc.org
