Telangana NRI Association (TeNA) celebrated its flagship annual event, “Boston Telangana Night” on April 12th 2008, Saturday in Acton, MA.
Boston Telanganites showed up in large numbers to make the second Telangana Night a grand success.  More than 300 people including many non-Telanganites and Coastal Andhra region also took very active participation.  The participants came from all over New England and as far away as New Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia came to witness the splendid performances of Telangana folk songs, music, dance, very innovative and informing quiz on Telangana and games for kids including the Tambola.

The event was kicked off with a brief welcome speech by Venkat Maroju and followed by the Ganesh Stotram by Priyanka and the song "Jaya Jaya Hey Telangana”.  Kids and Elders enthusiastically gave several performances throughout the night bringing back the memories of rich Telangana rural culture of folk music, songs and dances.  Telangana Folk dances by sisters Tuhina and Tushira were special attraction of the evening.  Alok Macharla’s dance to the popular Telugu song engaged almost all the audience.

Very interactive and informative Quiz on Telangana was the Highlight of the evening: regardless of their age, all attendees overwhelmingly participated in the Quiz session. Questions covered History of Telangana and culture.  Surprisingly the kids of Telangana region and growing up in USA seem to be well informed about the Telangana culture and history.

Ravi Mayreddy, Chairman of TeNA and chief guest of the evening spoke about the necessity of Telangana NRIs taking acting part in the socio, economic and political affairs of Telangana and make a positive contribution to the regional development.  He also elaborated on the activities of TeNA in US and India and requested Boston Telanganites to actively participate in TeNA activities.  Ravi asked all the Telangana NRIs to take pro-active role in the developmental activities in their back home villages and towns and leverage TeNA as a platform for undertaking and executing the projects.

Traditional Telangana dishes were served for dinner.  Traditional Ugadi Pachadi which is made of sweet syrup made out of good, mangos, coconut and vepa puvvu and and Telangana Pacchi Pulusu were highlight of the food menu.

Amar Karmilla, TeNA treasurer and Advisory Committee member thanked all those who were involved in making this event a grand success; Venkat Maroju, Vijaya Maroju, Geetanjali Karmilla, Rajedar Kaluvala, Rohini Kaluvala, Rayadas Manthena, Swarna Manthena, Shanti Putta, Naveena Putta, Srinivas Rao Meneni, Manjula Meneni, Venkat Reddy, Sarita, Sunil Peechara, Ramesh Dadigala, Parvathi Dadigala, Sridhar Takkalapelli, and Sai Swaroop Thota, Varsha Biyyala, Vamsi Koduri.

Amar also thanked the TeNA Advisory Committee members and Telangana senior leaders who came from all the way from New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia: Ravi Mayreddy, Soundarya Mayreddy, Ravi Dhannapuneni, Sangeetha Dhannapuneni, Venkatayogi Narayana Swamy, Venkatayogi Vidya, Telangana Jayaprakash and Chaitanya.

The event turned out to be a big success far beyond the expectations of organizers and all the participants were delighted that the event brought back fond memories of unique Telangana culture.  Many of the non-Telanganites including people who belonged to coastal Andhra region appreciated the unique culture and traditions of Telangana.

|