April 02, 2014: Bay Area Telugu Association (BATA) celebrated “Ugadi” (Telugu New Year) festival in a grand style.

It is a “flagship” event for BATA and it is the most popular with bay area Telugu community. It was a sold out program attended by more than 2000 guests. It was a day long program started at 9:00 am and went till 12:00 midnight with Youth Talents Show (Dance, Singing, Special talent competitions) cultural programs, and a grand musical concert by Tollywood singers.

There was a huge support from local businesses with lot of businesses have set up their exhibits/stalls at the event. Ravi Tax Services served as Grand Sponsor of the event. Others sponsors include Swagat Restaurants, Peacock Indian Restaurants, Scopus Consulting Group, International Technological University (ITU), You Smile Dental, Budwal & Associates, MyTax Filer, Visitors Coverage, East Bay Dental, Sirisha Homes, Second Workspace, Positive positioning & Astro Vaastu. Media partners Desi1170 am, Virijallu, Telugu Times, 6TV, TV5 & TV9 promoted the event.

BATA committee members & volunteers served  traditional “Ugadi Pacchadi” to all the attendee’s. This was sponsored by Peacock Indian Cuisine.

BATA volunteersworked hard in making the venue reflecting the Indian traditions and grace.The background displays on the stage during the cultural program screated an elegant and contemporary look. Harinath Chikoti led the decoration efforts.

As part of the main celebrations, youth talent show competitions were heldsimultaneously in two halls,  with over 300 children participated to showcase their talent in classical, folk/ film singing, dancing and special Talent.  Part of the Talent Show, there were also competitions for Art, Essay Writing, Science Fair and Chess. As always, there was an overwhelming response to these competitions. The competitions started at 9:00 am and went till 4:00 pm. Sumanth Pusuluri and Yaswanth Kudaravalli coordinated these  competitions.

The main cultural program started at 5:00 pm. Vijaya Aasuri (BATA advisor & cultural chair) welcomed all the guests and thanked the Bay Area Telugu community for their continued support.  Vijaya introduced  the judging panel consisting of Madhuri Kishore, Veena Logan, Kachare, Laxmi Sri, Keerthi Suram, Ravi Tata, Krishna Kanth & Manasa and thanked them for judging the competitions.

The evening program started with program  ‘Navatharam - నవతరం”  in which cute little kids & teens performed excellent dances. There were over 50“cute” little ones synchronized very well in dancing to variety of recent hit songs. The next item “Tarangini- తరంగిణి” (Spell binding semi-classical dance) by the “Vidya” dance Academy.

“Ninna Nedu Repu - నిన్నా  నేడు  రేపు” (Unique  Blend of dance forms – Tribal, Folk, Semi Classical, Tollywood &  Hip Hop),  “Yuva Tharam” (Energetic Youth Dances), “Kundanapu Bomma - కుందనపుబొమ్మ  -   ఎంకి, రాంబాఋ & Extraordinary Jackson)  and “Sairo Sairo - సైరో  సైరో“(Beat, Rhythm & Rocking Dances). The energy levels and the beats of the songs along with the gracious and elegant moves left the audience spell bound and the crowd responded with thunderous applause.

“Vandanam AbiVandanam – వందనం ఆభివందనం” was the highlight program of the evening. It was in memory of Legendary actor and thespian Sri. Akkineni Nageshwar Rao garu who passed away recently. It was a very unique program with themes from some of his super hits like Devadasu, Prema Nagar, Dasara Bullodu, Mooga Manasulu, Atma Balam & Premabhi Shekham.

The dances were choreographed by  Sridevi, Kiran, Rathna, Deepthi, Sudha,  Siddu and VijayaAasuri.

Students from Kriya Dance (Uma Dhanpal), Mahi Dance (Mac) Samidha Satyam & Smaran (Vidya Latha Jeerege)  also performed.

During this program Dr. Ramesh Konda welcomed the dignitaries who attended as special Invites to the program. Dr. Hanimi Reddy (Cardiologist and Philanthropist) , Srinivas (Office of Consul General of India) are some of the guests who graced the occasion. Ramesh also invited all the sponsors on to the stage, BATA committee members thanked thesponsors for their continued support and presented them with Plaques.  Ramesh also introduced the “Paatasala” teachers &coordinators. This is a recent initiative by Telugu Times and BATA to promote and teach Telugu language.

Ro Khanna (Democratic Candidate for US House of representatives - CA 17 district) also graced the Occasion. On behalf of BATA Veeru Vuppala (Advisory Board) welcome him and requested the strong Indian community to support Ro’s campaign.

On this occasion aUgadi special Souvenir “Telugu Velugu – తెలుగు వెలుగు” was released. Prasad Mangina (Magazine Editor) thanked all the authors who contributed with their articles, poems & stories and sponsors for their support in bringing out the souvenir.

The Grand Finale was a musical concert  “Malli Kooyave Guvva - మళ్ళీ  కూయవే  గువ్వా”a melodious music concert by “Little Music Academy”. Popular Tollywood singers Geetha Madhuri, Pranavi, KC (Krishna Chaitanya) Saketh, Actor “Nandu”  (Emcee) and Imitation Raju (Mimicry artist) under the able guidance of  Sri Ramachary garu performed  super hit songs from 50/60’s  (Golden Hits) to the recent hits. Thesingers made the program very entertainings hit songs one after another continuously for 4 hours.  The program started with “Ganesh Stuthi” and  included classic hits like “Oohalu Gusagusa Lade”, “ ChitaPata Chinukulu”, “Maate Mantramu”, “Punya Bhoomi Naadesam” , “Panchadara Bomma”, “Lalitha Priya Kamalam”, “Vedam Anuvanuvuna” “Om Namo Siva”, “NijamGaa”, “Yedutha Nilichindichoodu”,   to the latest hits “Chali Chaligaa”, “Konte Chuputho”,  “Jagadha Nanda”, "Taapu Lechipoddi”,  & “KevvuKeka” etc.

Imitation Raju was an “Instant hit”, and the audience thoroughly enjoyed his witty comments and his imitation of popular politicians and actors.

Towards the end of the program, the new committee for the year 2014 was introduced. Speaking on the occasion the out-going president Kamesh Malla who thanked everyone for their support during his tenure as the president and thanked all the volunteers who worked very hard in making the Ugadi event a grand success. He said he is very happy with some of the new initiatives like Paatasala & BATA 10th year cricket cup are under his tenure as president.   Kamesh then introduced the new President, Kalyan Kattamuri, and other members of the committee. Speaking on the occasion newly elected BATA president, Kalyan Kattamuri, said he is very excited to lead the dynamic BATA team and congratulated all the volunteers in making the Ugadi celebrations a grand success. Kalyan requested attendees to come be part of BATA and volunteer based on their time & interests.

BATA Committee thanked all the volunteers Srikar (photo & video), Narsimha Rao garu (Make up), Naresh, Jhansi, Krishna Priya, Swathi, Anantha, Kalyani, Sravanti, Sony, Aparna, Neharika, Madhavi, Sudha,Pavithra, Jyotsna, Deepthi, Hari Prasad, Suresh, Padma, Gayatri , Narendra, Srikant, Srinivas, Chinna, Prakash, Santosh, Deepika, Prashant, Nitya, Valli, Keerthi, Manasvi, Samatha, Maria, Arun, Yugandhar, Maria, Ashaand many others for their help in making the program a grand success. 

BATA team also thanked Safari Kids, Aptiva Corp, Sneha Restaurant & Swagat Restaurants for giving space for practices.