Detroit Telangana Community Showcases Bathukamma

Novi, MI, USA, Sept. 27: It was home away from home for hundreds of Telanganites in Detroit as Detroit Telangana Community (DTC) with the support of NRI Telangana Jagruthi, organized one of the largest Bathukamma celebrations in the history of US. As this is the first Bathukamma festival after Telangana state formation, DTC decided today celebrate the festival in a grand way and also showcase the Telangana culture to the rest of Indian Diaspora living in Michigan. For the first time Bathukamma was held in the newly constructed Sri Venkateshwara Temple in Novi.

Detroit Telangana Community (DTC) supported by NRI Telangana Jagruthi , which translated its months of planning and hard work into making the show a tremendous success which was evident by the huge attendance never seen before attracting many visitors outside Telangana region also. It was a perfect fall evening filled with festive gaiety, religious fervor and Telangana tradition at the SV Temple in Novi. Over 1500 people started pouring in from all over as far as Lansing, Toledo and Canada.

The grounds of SV Temple were immersed in colorful dresses of women and the beautifully decorated floral Bathukammas. The prizes for best Bathukamma has driven Bathukamma making to new heights this year, as people had to bring the giant Bathukamma in trailer trucks.

The festivities were kicked for the day by the head priest of SV Temple doing Gouri pooja. It was a great visual treat to see women folk, young and old clad in colorful traditional attires singing and dancing around the beautifully decorated Bathukammas. The Bathukamma songs reverberated for over three hours as record numbers played Bathukamma.

Delicious authentic Telangana cuisine consisting of sakinalu, gudalu, laddulu, mirchi bajjeelu and other dishes were served. The non Telangana people really enjoyed the variety of dishes that they have not tasted earlier.

Later the fun shifted into the Auditorium declaring the prizes for six most beautifully decorated Bathukammas. It was a tough choice for the judges as there were an overwhelming number of Bathukammas that participated this year in the competition. Bathukamma competition is categorized into Group and Solo competitions. In the Group category first prize went to Liberty park group (Jyothi Gullapalli, Sandhya Uppula, Sridevi kotte,Swetha vodhela,Jyothi Nichhenametla,Uma Adapa, Srujana Pingili, Sulochana) second prize went to Lavanya Kodati and Neelima Gone, Third prize went to Manju Reddy group.

In the solo competition first prize went to Swaroopa Kotha, second prize went to Sailaja Aitharaju and third prize went to Vijaya chinnam setty. Consolation prize was given to Padma Musuku,Jyothi Malugari, Bindhu Kommidi, Jyothi Kunta,Rani Madishetty group. DTC Chairman Nagender Aytha and President Venkat Manthena have spoken on the occasion explaining the effort that went into the event and thanked S.V Temple Executive committee for supporting the event. They also thanked the sponsors Bharath Reddy Madadi,Sreedhar Bandaru,Vijay Seri, RSRIT Reliable Software Resources,Kalyan Thirumala,Dr Sudha Krishna, Dr Sirisha Nemmullapudi,Surya Kiran Moparthi, Dr Samtukta Madisetty,Shyam Enaganti and all the volunteers who tirelessly worked for the event. Sreedhar Bandaru, Telangana Jagruthi NRI co-ordinator, who is one of the sponsors of the event spoke explaining the various activities of Telangana Jagruthi. Later there were songs and cultural programs of children which were co-ordinated by Vijay Pallerla. The skit played by Michigan Manabadi students explaining the significance of Bathukamma impressed the audience a lot.

The event was made possible by the committee members of DTC - Ramgopal Uppula, Bhujang Rao, Bharath Madadi, Shailendra Sanam, Kashi Kotha, Hari Maroju, Hari Parankusham, Sridhar Bandaru, Vishwanatha Raju, Murali Bommanaveni, Sunil Reddy Marri, Vijaybhaskar Pallerla, Srinivas Raju, Krishna Guduguntla, Anil Dhannapuneni and Srinivas Rao Gali.