TAGC celebrates Ugadi in Elgin, Chicago

On April 13, 2013, Telugu Association of Greater Chicago (TAGC) celebrated Ugadi and Sri Rama Navami at Elgin High School, Elgin. The program kicked off with Siva Pasumarthi welcoming the audience on behalf of TAGC cultural committee followed by Annamacharya Keertana coordinated by Padamaja Krishna, and choreographed by Shruthi Das.

President of TAGC, Ramesh Garapaty spoke to the audience during Presidents message and has thanked all the volunteers who have worked tirelessly to make the event a grand success. He released the new Telugu calendardesigned by SrinivasPedamalluwith several of the famous Indian women featuring on the cover pageof each month in commemoration ofTAGC's celebration of first-ever women's day.

Sri.Tammareddy Bharadwaja, President of AP film chamber of commerce, movie director, producer joined as a chief guest for the evening along with Sri. Shanti Swarup who was the anchor for Doordarshan a few years ago. ATA president Sri Karunakar Madhavaram, Narendra Chemarla, Satya Kadimalla, Srinivas Pedamallu and Kalyan Anandula joined the event to felicitate Sri Tammareddy Bharadwaj and Sri Shanti Swarup.

On behalf of TAGC, Sri.Tammareddy honored Mimicry Ramesh Jallarapu with DhwanyanukaranaTapasvi in recognition of his over six thousand performances across the world. Mimicry Ramesh received standing ovation for his performance throughout the night. His performances brought emotions of laughter and happiness through the crowd, and the audience was in awe of the talent of Mimicry Ramesh.

Sri.Tammareddy and Ramesh Garapaty presented the prizes to winners of Photography competition, Ping pong, bowling and chess tournaments conducted during this year.

During the event a special raffle was conducted to give away Air India economy class ticket, Samsung galaxy tablet and several other prizes.
Many local performances highlighted the local talent of the Chicagoland area.

The Pandagalu theme dance coordinated and choreographed by Sahithi Kotta and Bindhu Gongati featuring over twenty kids showed the many festivals of the Telugu culture. The dance had children portraying their knowledge of Telugu festivals such as Sankranthi, Ugadhi, and Diwali.

A skit scripted by Mrs.Vani Dittakavi and performed by the TAGC youth committee members under the guidance of BhargaviNettem and KiranMattey with the help of PavitraKarumurireceived applause from the audience for its creativity and ingenuity. Another highlight in this marvelous program was Sri K. Viswanadh Movie Hits choreographed by Sonia Agarwal and coordinated by Raji Kotamraju.

This great dance was a fusion showing Sri K. Viswanadh movie songs with the unique touch of both classical and semi-classical dance. SobhaTammana choreographed and coordinated wonderful Kuchipudi dance with the classic song Adhivo Alladhivoo. A truly amazing dance was choreographed and coordinated by JanakiAnandavalli Nair.

The Jaya Jaya Swamin was an Ode to Ganesha through the marvelous dance of Kuchipudi. Little kids performance for the song RamayyaTandri and the props designed by Ravi Tokalahas received a big applause from the audience. The night ended with Jana GanaMana.

President Ramesh Garapaty thanked his cultural team MalathiDamaraju, Siva Pasumarthi, Sairavi Suribotla, treasurer Jagan Bukkaraju, Secretary Sujatha Appalaneni, Joint Secretary Pradeep Kandimalla, Board Members Hari Raini, Bhargavi Nettem, Ravi Upad, Srinivas Pedamallu, Srinivas Bommineni, Ram Ade, Anji Reddy Kandimalla, Raghav Jatla, Sundar Dittakavi, Kiran Mattey, Satya Kondapalli, Amar Nettem, Sai Gongati, Padmakar Damaraju, Padmarao Appalaneni and all the other volunteers who have helped make the Ugadhi and Sri Rama Navami Celebrations a grand success. He also made a specific mention of sponsors from NY life Nilesh Patel, Bharathi Rameswaram, Air India and Ashok Lakshmanan of PMSI.