Telangana Cultural Float has been presented for the 1st time by Telangana Development Forum (TDF) & Telangana Cultural Association (TCA) at the FIA Independence Parade at Fremont, Calfornia on 18th of August 2013.
Federation of Indo-Americans Association, an umbrella organization of over 30 Bay Area Indian organizations representing different regions/states, cultures and heritages, celebrated 67th India’a Independence Day by organizing the Festival of India and Parade in Fremont, California on August 17th and 18th. The festival featured a two-day Mela and a Parade featuring floats representing States of India on the streets of Fremont. The Grand Marshal at the parade this year was Bollywood personality Jimmy Shergill.
This year’s parade showcased fifteen floats from different organizations representing culture, heritage and traditions of regions and states of India. Telangana float is decorated colorfully representing “Kakatiya Kala Thoranam”, that is built as welcoming gateway to southern hinterland from north side of vindhyas. This particular sculpture showcases rich imagination of architecture and skillful workmanship of the builders from 12th century. Kakatiya dynasty represented by Rudrama Devi, Pratapa Rudra and they have become unifying force between north & south cultures of India and they have rendered a special place in the Telangana and Indian history. Beside “Thoranam” – depicted tallest “Bathukamma” in its popular stack form that is arranged out of colorful and blossoming seasonal flowers with seven concentric layers. The float also decorated with Charminar, Golconda Fort, Bonam, India & Telangana state maps.
Thousands of people gathered on the parade route, on the streets of Fremont that were blocked for regular traffic all day for the festivities, to view the parade. During the parade, the parade participants as well as the spectators shouted the patriotic slogans such as “Bharath matha ki, Jai”, “Matharam matharam, vandematharam”, “Jai Jai Talli, Telangana Talli”, “Jai Telangana, Jai Jai Telangana”, “Jai Hind, Jai Jai Hind”, etc.
Float was led by 500 Telangana cultural ambassadors from San Francisco Bay Area. Also, while the float was moving in the parade, Hundred Telangana girls/women danced in circle in front of float with synchronizing steps and clapping in unison while songs were played out from musical system. A lot of Americans and other state representatives have joined the chorus to dance in unison to Janapadha music. Deepthi Kommareddy explained theme of the float along with significance of Kakatiya Thoranam, Bathukamma & Bonam to everyone who were present at the FIA podium.
Several young children on the Telangana float decorated themselves as Telangana Talli and wished everyone on the streets and showcased unity in diversity theme. Telangana volunteers have spent several days in and nights designing, constructing and decorating the float. More specifically, the volunteers have spent several hours in making the designed cut-outs to make Kakatiya Thoram, Charminar, and painting them as well as assembling the float late into the nights. The float was built on a long open-top truck using the hard wood boards and huge cut-outs. Prem Madderla, Srinivas Manikonda, Jagan Bearelly, Vijay Chavva led the team of Telangana volunteers in preparing the float, along with Srinivas Kompally, Revanth, Srinivas Pola, Bhavani Srinivas, Chandra, Rahul, Srinivas Ponnala, Raju Yasala, Ashok Reddy, Bhaskar Maddi, Srikanth Surakanti, Sujender Reddy, Chetan Muddasani, Rajesh Vattepalli, Srinath Muskula,, Santhosh Addagulla, Surender Penchala, Daya Dugyala, Sridhar Gurram, Suresh Akula, Bhagawanth Reddy, Sreeramana Kommareddy, Deepthi Kommareddy, Prasad Gattu, Yugandhar Reddy, Shravanthi Reddy, Alwal Putta and many others . Mr. Prem Madderla thanked TCA & TDF organizations for coming together on this occasion and bringing out best cultural display to San Francisco Bay Area public.