Grand Success Meet and Greet with Sri.T.Harish Rao Event in Cincinnati, OH.
“Meet and Greet with Sri.T.Harish Rao" in the city of Greater Cincinnati was a big success on Oct 14th 2010. This event was organized by CincyTelanganites, which is a group of Telangana NRIs living in Greater Cincinnati area, OH, USA. Besides to the fact that it was a busy typical business day in Cincinnati, the turnout was extremely impressive.
As part of the welcome tradition in Telangana, Telangana snacks were served to all guests. CincyTelanganites distributed documents with facts on Telangana History, Culture and Festivals like Batukamma. A specially prepared document on Amarajeevi Potti Sreeramulu's fast was also distributed which enlightened everybody with half century old hidden facts.
Special video presentation was played on Harish rao's strong role in Telangana politics, his constant and untiring legislative efforts for bringing justice to the people of Telangana. All of attendees thoroughly enjoyed the videos which profiled their beloved leader Mr.Harish Rao and his heroic leadership in today's Telangana movement.
At 7:30 PM, Mr. Harish Rao was escorted by CincyTelanganites to the venue. He was accorded with the hospitality and everybody supremely welcomed Mr.Harish Rao with the true spirit of Telangana. The representation from Greater Cincinnati was pretty diverse from old to young and invited guests from other interest groups. Kids welcomed him with flower bouquets and everybody chanted the slogans of 'JAI TELANGANA'.
Mr.Harish Rao was invited to stage by CincyTelanganites to take the chair of the most distinguished guest. Up on taking his chair on the stage, Mr.Harish Rao witnessed a kid singing Telangana Rastriya Geetham written by Andesri and he truly enjoyed her singing act and blessed her with happiness.
As part of the tradition to start the program with the ceremony of lighting the spirited lamp, Mr. Harish Rao did ‘Jyothy Prajwalana' to bring the success with the spirit of Telangana Thalli in hearts all of attendees. After that auspicious moment, everybody paid homage by observing silence for thirty seconds to bring peace to the Telangana souls who lost their lives in recent Telangana movement.
Mr.Harish Rao witnessed speeches of different age groups, like,activists of Telangana movement of 1969, Sri.Prasad Megada who is a senior Telangana activist, participated in the 1969 Telangana movement. He took all the participants down the memory lane into 1969 and narrated his experiences and history about the Telangana movement then in Urdu. There was one elderly person in the audience who was visiting his son here in the US, he came on to the dais and shared his views and experiences about the Telangana fight against razakars and the injustice done to Telanagana people.
Mr.Harish rao was requested to speak on the theme of the event 'past, present and future aspects of Telangana'. Mr. Harish rao’s speech was extremely logical, expected incisive, truly informative, highly intellectual and quite inspiring to the audience. Sri.Harish Rao started talking about the Telangana cause and the significance about it detailing as to why we need Telangana. He extensively talked about Hyderabad, mentioning Hyderabad CANNOT be separated from Telangana. It will neither be a combined capital nor a Union Territory. He mentioned if Andhra people are saying that there shouldn’t be a separate state then it’s purely in their self interest and not out of any affection towards the people of Telangana. Harish Rao also mentioned that Andhra people who came to Hyderabad long time back didn’t develop Hyderabad but only supported their investments and business. It’s their unjustifiable statement that they developed Hyderabad since Hyderabad was the fifth largest city before they came and it’s still continues to be the fifth largest metro in the country. Harish Rao tried to dispel the fears among people about real estate, saying it’s not because of Telangana but purely as a result of recession that has disrupted economic climate in global markets. Harish Rao talked about the scene some 6-8 years ago when people were scared to even utter the word ‘Telangana’, this was clearly evident even in the state assembly where usage of the word ‘Telangana’ was banned and if some legislator tried to bring it to the fore, he or she was removed from the assembly by marshals. Now the scenario has completely changed as people are more confident and are hell bent on getting their own state to have their own identity. Harish Rao went at length stating it’s now or never kind of situation in the current environment. He also stated about water allotment that is below par for the Telangana region and stressed that having our own state would help in getting our own rightful share of waters. After speaking for more than an hour, it was time for Q&A. Harish answered questions about NRI roles & responsibilities. During Q&A there was an announcement of dinner but the audiences were that cast spellbound that no one got up from his/her chair.
One of the core group members of CincyTelanganites mentioned about their past activities in Cincinnati to the audience and encouraged everybody to come forward to bring all Telanganites under this umberella in Cincinnati region. He also mentioned about events conducted in the past in Greater Cincinnati area like the meeting in January to inspire and educate people in this region, private gatherings on current affairs in Telangana , celebration of Telangana Independence Day and enlightenment to the people of Telangana through a special video 'POTHILLANUNDI' to stop suicides.
It was time to conclude the day’ proceedings, Mr.Harish Rao was presented a memento for his outstanding commitment for the T cause and was honored by a shawl. There was group photo with Harish Rao involving CincyTelanganites core group members:VenuKaila, Praveen Chennadi, Narayana Chatla, Sitaram Boyinepally, Ganesh Kota, Hari Kasula, Shobha n Ponna, Ramesh Vemula, Satyam Thota, Chandra Madichetty, Sridhar Palley. Vote of Thanks was presented by Sitaram Boyinepally.
