Traditional Telangana folklore, music, dances and “Jai Telangana” slogans enthralled the audience in the historic city of Lexington in the Boston suburbs on the eve of 5th Boston Telangana Night.
Telangana NRI Association (TeNA) Boston Chapter celebrated its flagship annual event, “5th Boston Telangana Night” on May 21, 2011, Saturday in the historic city of Lexington, Massachusetts.
Telanganites from Boston Metro area showed up in large numbers to make the 5th Telangana Night a grand success. More than 500 people including many non-Telanganites actively participated. The participants came from all over New England and as far away as Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York to celebrate the spirit of Telangana.
The event was kicked off with Ganesh Prarthana by Rithika and Rishika Surineni followed by welcome speech by Senior TeNA member Paparao Gundavaram. Geethanjali Karmilla and Varsha Biyyala acted as the masters of ceremony for the event.
There were many enthralling performances by both the kids and elders depicting the rich culture of “Janapadam” – folk music, songs and dances wearing the traditional Telangana attire. It brought back the childhood memories and helped create the emotional bondage with our mother Telangana in its struggle for statehood.
Folk dance by little kids Yuven, Gayatri, Vamsi krishna, Prinika, Anisha, Aashiq to the medley songs Banjare banjo – Telangana gattu meedha – na muddula rambai was performed with perfection. Alok Macharla’s dance to the Asaidulla Harathi reverberated the entire hall with claps.
Another dance to Telangana medley by Pavan Kondoju, Madhu Purushotham, Venkat Macharla, Amar Karmilla, and Ramesh Dadigala was a very special attraction – It started with Jaya Jaya he Telangana followed by Jai Bolo Telangana and ended with Podusthunna Poddu Meeda. The audience joined the chorus and chanted Jai Telangana slogans throughout this performance. The program ended with a strong sense of Telangana spirit by splendid dance performance by Yashitha, Medha, Rishika, Rithika, Pragathi and Jagruthi to the Telangana udyama song Ooru Vaada Okkatai Udyaminchiranno Jai Kotti Telangana.
To mark the 5th Boston Telangana Night, TeNA Boston Chapter brought the first Telangana magazine in USA, thaMgedu – named after the wild flower native to Telangana, which is also used for making Bathukamma – a festival unique to Telangana region. This inaugural issue carried articles written by Telangana NRIs on topics ranging from the great personalities to festivals and historic events and stories of Telangana. The magazine was released by Boston Telangana veteran Laxma Reddy garu.
On this occasion, the gathering paid tribute to late Dr. Omar Khalidi, who passed away in a fatal accident last November. Dr. Omar Khalidi an accomplished researcher at MIT authored more than 2 dozen books on various subjects ranging from Islamic architecture to Muslims in Indian economy and Khaki and the Ethnic Violence in India which generated a very heated debate in Indian Parliament. Dr. Omar Khalidi was born and brought up in Hyderabad and for the past several years, he has been an active member of Boston Telangana community.
Ravi Mayreddy, Chairman of TeNA in his address remarked that formation of Telangana state is inevitable and thanked all the NRIs for extending their continuous support to the statehood movement over the years. Ravi requested Boston Telangana NRIs to take active part in reconstruction of Telangana.
Ravi Mayreddy, Purushotham Raju, Venkat Reddy Muddasani and Srinivas Meneni distributed the prizes to all the participants.
Some of the prominent people attended the event included, Mohan Nannapuneni, newly elected President of TANA, Paparao Gundavaram, Koteshwar Rao Kandukuri, president of TAGB, Poorna Rao, Subbu Kota, Laxma Reddy, Ramkishan Rao, Dr. Suresh Reddy, Prasad Reddy and Sreenivas Kaki.
Vijay Kaki and Rajender Kalaval thanked the sponsors and active volunteers
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