On the occasion of beginning of Telugu New Year “sarvadhari naama samvatsaram”, Bay Area Telugu Association (BATA) and BharatFamily.com presented a day-long Telugu Mela on April 5, 2008 at Hindu Temple, Sunnyvale, California. Highlights of the day-long event ‘Mela’ included “Youth Talent Show” during the day and a spectacular cultural event in the evening. The dances, songs, and music presented during both the Youth Talent Show and in the evening cultural program were a feast to the audience as all of the performances were well presented and fascinating. One could easily witness the chorus from the deeply immersed audience through out the program for musical hits of the past and present. The following businesses sponsored the event:
Grand Sponsor: BharatFamily.com
Event Promoted by: Ravi Tax Services & Raji Insurance
Platinum Sponsors: Namasta Plaza, Channel Real Estate & Mortgage
Gold Sponsors: Shree Travels, IndoGain, Peacock Indian Cuisine
The Youth Talent show has been providing a platform for youth to showcase their talents in music, dance, singing, and other fields. The ever increasing participation of children from a tender age of 3 to 16 in large numbers shows the hard work put in the by the kids in learning telugu language and arts and the dedication of parents to ensure their children are in touch with our language, culture and festivals. This year’s talent show had more than 70 entries in various categories with over 150 children participating in sub-junior, junior and senior categories. The stage was resplendent with children wearing traditional dresses and costumes “Sarees", “onis” & “panchelu” from Andhra Pradesh and performing to classical, popular folk and film songs leaving the audience a feeling as if they are in Andhra Pradesh during the show. It was indeed memorable to see children singing classical and popular movie songs with confidence in front of a large gathering, playing musical instruments and dancing to classical, folk and movie songs dressed up in colorful, traditional costumes and jewelry. The parents and dance teachers of the groups did a tremendous job of preparing the children and getting them ready for the competition. The unique aspect of the youth talent was that the show was anchored by youth introducing the performers and items in telugu. The Youth Talent show was very efficiently and professionally organized and conducted by Srilu Veligeti, Vijaya Aasuri, Preethi, and Aparna Pasumarthy.
The hall was well decorated and adorned with traditional telugu toranalu, mango leaves leaving the audience with a distinct impression of celebrating Ugadi in Andhra Pradesh. BATA advisory board member and Cultural Chair Mrs. Vijaya Aasuri started the evening program and announced the program was developed to showcase and celebrate Telugu culture while entertaining the audience. At the beginning of the evening’s cultural program, Vijaya Aasuri introduced the American Telugu Association (ATA) representatives (Chandra Reddy Gavva, Mohan Mallam, Hanimireddy Lakireddy, Rajendar Reddy Jinna, and Buchanna Gajula) who attended the event. Speaking at this occasion, representatives of ATA wished the audience a happy Ugadi. Dr. Hanimireddy Lakireddy served as the Chief Guest of the event. Dr. Lakireddy applauded the fully packed attendees in embracing and promoting the telugu culture and traditions with lot of enthusiasm. The main cultural event in the evening started with a Prayer song directed by Jayashree Varadarajan. Then a dance “okapari okapari” by anjali and Ramya reminded the beauty of classical art. Then the dance for “sita rama kalyanam” by 40 kids showcased the insights of lord Sita Rama wedding. Coordinating 40 young kids in a single dance was a challenging task, but the directors Vijaya Aasuri and Srilu Veligeti prepared the kids so nicely that the kids performed to the script excellently. Following by this was another classical dance “Ksheeradhi Kanyakau” by Anjali and Ramya enlighten the audience with classical form of art. The mini skit show “Ugadi special” by Sirisha, Chakrapani, Prasad, and Kamesh brought the audience to the lighter side of the life with laughter and comedy. This was directed by Brahmanandam Gorthi.
Similar to the recent Telugu film “Vajrotsavam” theme, BATA artists performed “Venditera Talukulu …star studded tribute to tollywood” in which artists danced for several of telugu hit songs both old and new such as “aaresukoboyi paresukkunnanu”, “chengavi ranguchira kattukunna chinnadi”, etc. Audience clapped for every step and song performed part of this. The participants in this were Srilu, Sirisha, Jhansi, Sudha, Deepti, Kalyani, Jyotsna, Reena, Sruti, Amita, Manasa, Kalyan, Kolli, Kiran, Ravi, Kamesh, Venkat, Hari, Sai, Shiva. This was directed by Vijaya Aasuri and Srilu Veligeti. Then came the little ones program called “leta manasulu..Nani’s love story”. In this sequence of song and dialogues were used to depict Nani’s school life, love life, and the challenges. This program was nicely choreographed with humorous dialogues. A total 75 kids performed in various roles. This program was choreographed by Vijaya Aasuri and Srilu Veligeti, and dialogues were written by Kalyan Kattamuri.
The next program was by the youngsters called “yuvatarangam..young waves” in which teenagers danced for several new telugu hit movie songs. The participants were Meghana, Varsha, Anusha, Neeli, Shalini, Akhila, Shilpa, Poorvaja, Vasalya, Manasa, Bhavana, Meenakshi, Shravya, Neeharika, and Bhavya. Choreographers for this were Vijaya Aasuri and Srilu Veligeti. Then came the event highlight comedy skit called “TV99 - Chache daka mee vente”. This play enthralled the audience with some fine acting and comical situations directed by Kalyan Kattamuri. The participants were Kalyan, Kolli, Ravi, Hari, Venkat, Kamesh, Kiran, Chakrapani, and Deepti. This skit depicted live TV show where the reported in TV news reader polls the reporter in the field. Additionally, the comedy has mix of hilarious dialogues that were related to Telangana and Andhra politics.
The finale was set to some fast foot tapping hits from recent movies.. once again the audiences were brought to height of the music and dance with “nachore nachore ..spectacular dance dhamaka” performed by several youngsters that include Srilu, Sirisha, Sudha, Keerthi, Swati, Deepti, Kalyani, Smita, Jyotsna, Lavanya, Gayatri, Jyoti, Reena, Aparna, Sruti, Sneha, Amita, Manasa, Ramya, Kalyan, Kolli, Kiran, Ravi, Kamesh, Venkat, Hari, Sai, Shiva, Balaji, Vinod, Anjali, Vidy, Viswam, and Sridhar. This program was choreographed by Vijaya Aasuri, Srilu Veligeti, Sai Kiran, Deepti and Sirisha. The dances were performed by the youth of BATA with great energy and enthusiasm leaving the audience with a feeling of wanting to see more dances. On stage help for stage arrangements and sound system management by Veeru Vuppala and Karun Veligeti made the entire day-long program run smooth and successful. During the event, BATA released annual souvenir magazine, "Telugu Velugu", edited by Sreedhar Chava.
Several vendors such as tax consultants, telugu TV channels, boutiques, mehendi, jewelry, fashion dressings, financial services, real estate, food stalls, etc. were setup at the Mela. Part of the talent show, BATA in association with AAA Gems and Beads organized an Art Camp and Painting Competitions headed by Arvind Kotha (a Guinness book record holder). There were over 100 kids participated in this art camp and the winners were awarded with the recognition trophies.
Speaking at this event, the out-going President of BATA, Mr. Yugandhar Karakala, reported several events held by BATA during his tenure that include Ugadi-2007, Volleyball Tournament, summer picnic, BATA Cup Cricket Tournament, winning First Place at FIA India’s Independence Day parade, fund-raising events for Vegesna Foundation, Cancer Institute Foundation, Sankara Eye Foundation, and India Literacy Project, felicitation of Sri. Raja Shekar Reddy (Chief Minister, AP), Sri. Chandrababu Naidu (Ex-Chief Minister, AP), Sri. Pallam Raju (Union Minister of India), Sri. Jaipal Reddy (Union Minister of India) and Lok Satta Party Founder Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan. Yugandhar thanked the BATA committee, volunteers, sponsors, and the audience for making his tenure a very memorable one. He introduced the committee members, Ravi Thiruveedhula, Prasad Mangina, Kalyan Kattamuri, Srinivas Kolli, Sreedhar Chava, Ramesh Konda, Vijaya Aasuri, Srilu Veligeti, Srini Mangipudi, and Satheesh Pola on the stage.
Following this, the new committee for the year 2008 was announced as follows: Ravi Thiruveedhula (President), Prasad Mangina (Vice President), Srilu Veligeti (Secretary), Srinivas Kolli (Treasurer), Srini Mangipudi (Joint Secretary), Vijaya Aasuri (Cultural Chair) and Ramesh Konda (Marketing Chair). On this occasion, with the responsibility for the new team for year 2008, Mr. Ravi Thiruveedhula mentioned that he is thankful for the opportunity to lead the team, and promised that he will continue to work hard and diligently in making the BATA programs successful with the help of the committee, advisors, volunteers, supporters and well-wishers.
Vijaya Aasuri invited Sri. Jayaram Komati, (TANA President-Elect), onto the stage. Speaking at this event, Mr. Komati wished everyone with Ugadi greetings and mentioned that he is very impressed with the program and the audiences. Mr. Komati mentioned that Bay Area telugu community has been overwhelmingly supporting all BATA events, and congratulated BATA for the great work in performed not only the cultural programs but also fund-raising events for great causes. Mr. Komati presented BATA’s recognition & appreciation plaques to the event sponsors: BharatFamily.com, Ravi Tax Services & Raji Insurance, Channel Real Estate and Mortgage, Namaste Plaza, Shree Travels, IndoGain, and Peacock Indian Cuisine. Following this, prizes were distributed to the winners of the Youth Talent Show. When announcing the results from Youth Talent Show, there was moment of suspense and anticipation among the participants until the results were announced, and the audience witnessed a cheered up winners and the teams who proudly received the trophies. This was a day long event started at 10AM and ended at 9PM with prize distributions to the winners of Youth Talent Show. During the event, Ugadi pachadi was served at the event. It was estimated that over 2000 people visited the Mela, and the venue was totally packed in the evening. Representatives from the local community, TANA, ATA, CIF, ILP, SEF, Asha, Vibha, CRY, Anand Charity, Association of Indian Heritage, etc. were also seen the event.
Pictures from the event are available at: http://www.bata.org/2008events/ugadi/photos
