USA January 25, 2014 : ATA (Albany Telugu Association) organized the Sankranthi celebrations in Hindu Temple Cultural Center, Albany NY, on January 18th, 2014, which turned out to be a grand success with attendance of over 500 people. Sankranthi event started with Muggulapotilu, at 10:30 AM, followed by BhogiPalluvedukalu, Gobillaaatalu at 3:30 PM. The main SankranthiSambaraalu event started at 4:30 PM with pooja by Albany Hindu Temple priest, Mr.Srinivasa Sharma, followed by "Maa Telugu Talli" song, sung by Telugubadi students. Masters of ceremony Mrs.KalpanaRyali&Mr.VijayaRangaraju welcomed the audience and hosted the succeeding events. There were a lot of entertaining cultural programs such as several classical dances, Telugu songs, Tollywood dances, Telugu comedy skit performed by local talents.  Mr. Raj Addepalli welcomed and introduced the ETV PaaduthaTeeyaga USA singers, Mr. Hara Prasad Simhadri, Mr.SrikanthSandugu, Mrs.SrutiGarikapati and Mrs.Srujana Ravi-Poka, entertained the audience with the melodious tracks from various Telugu movies. The evening was filled with non-stop cultural programs and singing performances by ETV PaaduthaTeeyaga singers were well received by packed audience.

Mr. Raj Addepalli welcomed and introduced the 2014 ATA President Mr.Srinivas  Nadella to a great applause from the audience. Mr.Srinivas  Nadella took over and introduced ATA-2014 Board members. He mentioned that, this SankranthiSambaraalu event was successful only with the outstanding support by the ATA Board members, Mr.PurnaIlipilla (Secretary), Mr.SambasivaPunyala (Treasurer), Mr.Subhani M Pattan (Joint Treasurer), Mr.KalyanKompally, Mrs. Lakshmi Kantimahanthu, Mrs.LathaJakkani, Mr. Chandra Sekhar, Mr.SatheeshBhashyam, Mr. Sridhar Pentyala, Mr. Suma Vattikonda, Mr. Suresh Malneedi. He spoke about  the importance of Telugu language, culture, heritage and festivals. He also spoke about how ATA is preserving and passing on the traditions to the next generations in America. He sincerely expressed his gratitude for the sponsors Dr.VenkateswaraRaoVoleti, Dr.VijayaAadi, Dr.KishanBattu&Dr.GovindRao. ATA President Mr.SrinivasNadella recognized and honored the ATA-2013 Board Members and presented momentos for their service to theAlbany Capital Region Telugu community. Dr. Padma Aadi distributed prizes to the MuggulaPoti winners. Flavours of India restaurant of Albany NY, served delicious dinner with mouth-watering dishes to all the ATA members and guests.

ATA Secretary Mr.PurnaIlipilla delivered the vote of thanks and thanked all the people by naming them who played a major role in the success of the event. He also expressed awe and gratitude to Flavors of India restaurant, sponsors, volunteers, Sponsors and the ATA board who worked tirelessly throughout the event.